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Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Wheat starts to reach Syria as frozen funds unlocked
By Jonathan Saul and Michael Hogan
LONDON/HAMBURG (Reuters) - Deliveries of wheat are starting to reach Syrian ports as its bank accounts abroad are gradually being freed from sanctions, with grain traders detecting a greater willingness from European governments to allow deals to go ahead on humanitarian grounds.
As civil war grinds on, Syria is facing its worst wheat harvest in three decades. President Bashar al-Assad, who has already escaped air strikes as punishment for chemical weapons attacks, will now be able to bolster depleted food supplies.
Trade sources familiar with commercial deals said at least 500,000 tons of bread-making wheat that Syria had tried to obtain months ago, but which could not be paid for because its foreign bank accounts were frozen, were now starting to be delivered.
"What we are seeing at the moment is Syrian government business that was done in the past -- between four to six months ago -- that is only now being executed," a Middle East based trade source involved in deals said. "It looks like the payment issues are being resolved."
A source with Syria's state wheat buyer, the General Establishment for Cereal Processing and Trade, (Hoboob), confirmed deals were struck months ago for 500,000 tons of wheat, adding that 150,000 tons had recently been delivered using previously frozen funds.
"The willingness amongst governments that have frozen Syrian assets to offer waivers allowing the regime to tap into these funds in order to buy food staples is likely to increase in the short term," said Torbjorn Soltvedt of risk consultancy Maplecroft.
"Following the U.S. administration's decision to forgo air strikes - at least in the short term - the conflict remains a stalemate in which the humanitarian situation will continue to deteriorate."
Foodstuffs are not covered by international sanctions, but banking sanctions and asset freezes imposed by Washington and Brussels created a climate that had made it difficult for some trading houses to do business with Damascus.
Syria has struggled for several months to conclude deals to buy sugar, wheat and rice in international tenders using frozen funds, partly because of difficulties in securing permission from governments to free those funds.
UNLOCKING FUNDS
Unlocking the bank accounts is up to member states in the European Union and trade sources familiar with deals said the moves were due to concerns over the worsening humanitarian situation and attempts to free up funds were aimed at alleviating it. An EU spokesman has confirmed that such trades are not subject to restrictions, but it was up to authorities in member states where the banks are located to authorize the transactions.
Banking sources pointed to several Middle Eastern banks with operations in Europe that had frozen funds. One trade source said Syria had paid for the wheat using funds in some of the Arab owned banks.
Banking sources said banks had pooled previously blocked funds to close some of the deals.
"We have always been very strong in doing business with Syria. Of course under today's difficult circumstances, one tries to do the doable," said a source at one of the Arab banks, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivities of the trade.
"The Syrian government continues to heavily restrict the distribution of aid. This exposes any countries that unfreeze Syrian assets to criticism that they are strengthening the position of the regime, which relies on the distribution of food in the areas it controls to boost support," Maplecroft's Soltvedt said.
Before the conflict, banks with large Syrian activities included Germany's Commerzbank. Asked about humanitarian deals, a Commerzbank spokesman said, "we are currently not doing any such transactions".
France has cleared the use of frozen Syrian bank assets to pay for exports of food as part of a European Union system that allows such funds to be used for humanitarian ends, a trade ministry spokeswoman said last month.
Trade sources said the wheat had been sourced from France and Black Sea producers especially Ukraine and Romania.
Around 250,000 to 300,000 tons of French wheat is expected to load for Syria, some of which shortly, sources said.
"We are not in a similar situation to Egypt, where sales are well organized. This is a country at war with everything this implies in terms of disruptions," a trader close to the matter said.
MIDDLE MEN
Deals had been concluded using private companies including middle men in Syria.
The Middle East source said Syria was opting to conclude some business outside of formal tenders. "Non-tender business also allows them more channels including some involvement from the private sector."
A separate trade source said there was talk of a further purchase this week of up to 150,000 tons of grains comprising wheat and corn, although others could not confirm details.
"Although Russia and Iran will remain the main lifeline for the Syrian regime, the increasingly fragmented war economy continues allow a wide range of local and international actors to conclude ad-hoc commodity deals," Maplecroft's Soltvedt said.
Despite signs of business emerging, Syria is still behind on purchases. The conflict has taken its toll on Syria's vital sea-borne trade, which has dropped despite efforts to keep commercial supply lines open.
Agribusiness group Cargill said it aimed to sell agricultural commodities to places such as Iran and Syria as food is specifically excluded from sanctions.
"Obviously this is not an easy thing because when we do this business our thinking is first and foremost for the safety of the people involved in making these deliveries," Roger Janson, Cargill's head of ocean transportation, said in a recent interview.
Commodity traders say it is impossible to accurately estimate Syria's wheat needs.
Estimates collated by Reuters from over a dozen grain officials and local traders in late July after the harvest suggested Syria would need to import 2 million tons of wheat in the coming year to meet normal needs after a crop of 1.5 million tons, under half the prewar norm.
Syria's peacetime import needs varied greatly according to its harvest, with imports of about 400,000 tons needed in the year before the war began in 2011.
"No one really has an accurate picture of Syria's actual crop as the country is a war zone and independent crop analysts cannot visit the grain areas and see for themselves how the crop developed and how much was actually harvested," a European trader said.
"It must be assumed the fighting will have damaged peacetime farming patterns."
(Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi, Dominic Evans in Beirut, Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt, Valerie Parent in Paris and Nigel Hunt in London, writing by Jonathan Saul, Editing by Veronica Brown and Giles Elgood)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wheat-starts-reach-syria-frozen-funds-unlocked-155617654.html
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Friday, October 11, 2013
Higgs did not know he had won Nobel
11 October 2013
Last updated at 07:53 ET
Professor Peter Higgs: "She congratulated me on the news and I said 'oh, what news?'"
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Prof Peter Higgs has revealed he did not know he had won the award until a woman congratulated him in the street.
Prof Higgs, who does not own a mobile phone, said a former neighbour had pulled up in her car as he was returning from lunch in Edinburgh.
He added: "She congratulated me on the news and I said 'oh, what news?'"
The woman had been alerted by her daughter in London that Prof Higgs had won the award, he revealed.
He added: "I heard more about it obviously when I got home and started reading the messages."
The 84-year-old emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh was recognised by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his work on the theory of the particle which shares his name, the Higgs boson.
He shares this year's physics prize with Francois Englert of Belgium, and joins the ranks of past Nobel winners including Marie Curie and Albert Einstein.
Watch: David Shukman profiles the "shy but brilliant" Peter Higgs
'God particle'
The existence of the so-called "God particle", said to give matter its substance, or mass, was proved almost 50 years later by a team from the European nuclear research facility (Cern) and its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Speaking for the first time about the award at a media conference at the University of Edinburgh, he said: "How do I feel? Well, obviously I'm delighted and rather relieved in a sense that it's all over. It has been a long time coming."
An old friend told him he had been nominated as far back as 1980, he said.
Prof Higgs added: "In terms of later events, it seemed to me for many years that the experimental verification might not come in my lifetime.
"But since the start up of the LHC it has been pretty clear that they would get there, and despite some mishaps they did get there".
Stressing the involvement of other theorists and Cern, he added: "I think clearly they should, but it is going to be even more difficult for the Nobel Committee to allocate the credit when it comes to an organisation like Cern.
"I should remind you that although only two of us have shared this prize, Francois Englert of Brussels and myself, that the work in 1964 involved three groups of people, (including) two in Brussels.
"Unfortunately Robert Brout died a few years ago so is no longer able to be awarded the prize, but he would certainly have been one of the winners if he had still been alive.
"But there were three others who also contributed and it is already difficult to allocate the credit amongst the theorists.
"Although a lot of people seem to think I did all this single-handed, it was actually part of a theoretical programme which had been started in 1960."
Landmark research
Prof Higgs was born in Newcastle, but developed his theory while working at the University of Edinburgh.
The landmark research that defined what was to become known as the Higgs boson was published in 1964.
Discovering the particle became one of the most sought-after goals in science, and the team of scientists behind the $10bn LHC at Cern made proving its existence a key priority.
In July of last year, physicists at Cern confirmed the discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.
Prof Higgs, who had often been uncomfortable with the attention his theory brought, was in Geneva to hear the news, and wiped a tear from his eye as the announcement was made.
Reacting to the discovery at the time, he told reporters: "It's very nice to be right sometimes."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24493400#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Friday, September 7, 2012
Second Marriages Create Special Financial and Estate Planning ...
An oft-told tale describes a young man?s efforts to entice a beautiful woman to marry him because he would soon inherit $20 million from his ailing father. Impressed, the woman asks the man for his business card. At their next encounter, the beautiful woman introduces herself as the man?s stepmother ? i.e. showing that women are better financial planners than men.
This imaginary woman?s expertise in financial planning is based on laws that provide for surviving spouses before providing for a dead person?s children. The young man was now going to have to wait for his new stepmother to pass on, which ? if this was a May-December romance ? could be some years from now.?
Laughs aside, second marriages ? particularly when there are adult children on each side from first marriages ? create their own set of financial planning issues. Below are seven issues to consider:
Issue #1: If Dad dies first, the second wife has statutory rights in Minnesota to Dad?s estate upon Dad?s death regardless of what Dad?s Will says. This right is called an ?elective share? and entitles the surviving spouse to varying amounts of the ?augmented estate? depending on the length of the marriage. For example, the surviving spouse is entitled to 3% after one year of marriage and 50% at 15 years or more of marriage. The augmented estate includes practically every asset of both spouses whether it is life insurance, real estate, or property transferred prior to death. Under this scenario, the family cabin that was in Dad?s family for generations could end up with Dad?s second wife and her children. Solution: A pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement signed by both spouses in which each waives his or her right to the elective share.
Issue #2: If Dad and his second wife buy a new home or other real estate as joint tenants, Dad?s children from his first marriage may lose all claim to the property if Dad dies first. How? Under joint tenancy laws, Dad?s second wife becomes the sole owner of the home upon Dad?s death, and the second wife is entitled to use or dispose of the property as she sees fit. Her Will controls at her death, and she could have decided to pass the property solely to her children for her first marriage. Solution: A prenuptial agreement could require that real estate acquired during the marriage be held as tenants in common rather than as joint tenants. The difference is that the surviving spouse can claim the entire property under joint tenancy, but has no right to Dad?s half under tenants in common unless Dad specifically wills it to his second wife.????
Issue #3: The children of Dad?s second wife covet Dad?s wealth, which causes Dad?s children to worry about their inheritance. Dad likely wants to provide for his second wife after Dad?s death, but leaving assets directly to her enables her to pass those assets onto her children, or anyone else that she chooses, and to shut out Dad?s children. Solution: Dad could set up a Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust, or QTIP Trust, for short, which is a Trust with strings attached. All income earned by the QTIP assets is paid to the second wife each year, but the second wife is only allowed to tap into the principal if an independent trustee ? not the second wife or children from Dad?s first marriage ? determine that she needs the money. Upon the death of the second wife, the remaining principal goes to Dad?s children from his first marriage. In this manner, the second wife is provided for, but a significant portion of Dad?s assets are protected for Dad?s children.????
Issue #4: If Dad dies leaving a much younger second wife as his widow, the adult children from Dad?s first marriage may need to wait a long time for the second wife to die so that the children can inherit Dad?s estate. ?Solution: If Dad purchases life insurance, which provides a death benefit to Dad?s children at Dad?s death, then a cash payout is immediately available.
Issue #5: Dad and his second wife acquire new property during their marriage, and now they wish to divorce. Solution: A prenuptial agreement could be used to provide that property acquired during marriage shall be divided between them in proportion to the contribution each made in purchasing the property.????
Issue #6: Dad and his second wife have given each other a durable power of attorney on their respective assets. A durable power-of-attorney document allows Dad to name someone to handle his affairs when he?s mentally incapacitated. It is a very powerful document that can cover everything from drawing money from Dad?s checking account to selling Dad?s real estate. Solution: Dad should name someone other than his second wife as the power holder under a durable power of attorney, and could limit the breadth of the power granted over his financial assets.
Issue #7: Dad and his second wife?s medical needs come to the forefront as each ages. In Minnesota, if either Dad or his second wife has significant medical needs, the state will expect the other to help pay for the other?s care regardless of what the prenuptial agreement states. Solution: The prenuptial could provide that each must purchase long-term care insurance. The prenuptial agreement could further provide that each agrees to pay for his or her own medical expenses even, if necessary, to the complete exhaustion of that person?s assets before the other spouse would be expected to give any financial assistance to their spouse. This language may not be sufficient to protect the assets of the spouse who doesn?t need the medical care, but it should at least provide some protection.??
?2012 Wittenburg Law Office, PLLC. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: This Blog is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as legal advice. If you have questions, please seek the advice of an attorney licensed to practice law in the state where you live. Wittenburg Law does not expressly or implicitly warrant the accuracy or reliability of any of the Blog?s contents. An attorney-client relationship is not formed by reading this Blog. If you are interested in Wittenburg Law?s representation of you, you must contact Wittenburg Law for a determination of whether your matter is one for which Wittenburg Law is willing and able to accept representation of you.
Bonnie Wittenburg
Wittenburg Law Office, PLLC
601 Carlson Parkway, Suite 1050
Minnetonka, MN 55305
952-649-9771
www.bwittenburglaw.com
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Thursday, September 6, 2012
Banks face rules to curb mis-selling incentives
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's banks have 18 months to stamp out incentives that encourage the mis-selling of financial products or face "intrusive" action, the Financial Services Authority said on Wednesday.
UK banks have been hit by a string of scandals in the last 20 years for inappropriate selling of products, such as insurance, home loans and pensions, to customers who often did not need them. Compensation for mis-sold loan insurance alone will cost the banks 9 billion pounds.
Martin Wheatley, the FSA's managing director, told a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event it was time to tackle incentives for sales staff as banks were no longer serving customers properly.
"Some time ago, this changed - financial institutions have changed their view of consumers from someone to serve to someone to sell to," Wheatley said.
Wheatley said banks could no longer expect to make heady returns and should get back to offering "plain vanilla products" that customers can understand.
"If we think in a year to 18 months' time the industry has not cleaned up its act, then we will revisit it in a much more intrusive way," Wheatley said.
"The question is how intrusive we need to be," Wheatley told Reuters.
The FSA has started enforcement action against one firm over its sales incentives to stop what Wheatley called the "pile it high and sell them cheap" approach seen across the industry.
A person familiar with the situation said the enforcement action was being taken against Lloyds bank.
Lloyds said that since the FSA began its review of incentives in summer 2011 the bank has been working closely with the watchdog to keep them "updated on our progress and to ensure the changes we have made to the schemes are appropriate".
Wheatley said new rules could make certain that the FSA's "new, fairer, approach is hard-wired into the way firms do business, and enforceable if they disregard them".
He said cultural change was needed at the top of firms to tackle poorly designed incentive schemes that boost the earnings of the sales person but "too often result in customers being sold products they do not need or cannot use".
The FSA will attend more bank board meetings and raise its concerns when it meets bank chiefs collectively each quarter to end a "disconnect" between CEOs' willingness to correct shoddy sales practices and the apparent lack of action on the ground.
The FSA was not aiming to ban commission but to put pressure on banks to have the right sales incentives, as piling on prescriptive rules could encourage them to find ways round them, hence the emphasis on cultural change, he added.
Wheatley is due to make recommendations on September 28 on better supervision and governance for setting the benchmark Libor interest rate, which Barclays was fined $453 million (285 million pounds) for rigging.
Wheatley declined to comment on his public consultation on proposed reforms to Libor which ends on Friday.
"I have a busy weekend ahead," he said.
BLIND EYE
The FSA has already shown its teeth in changing culture at the banks. Chairman Adair Turner helped to force the resignation of Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond in July, saying he was not the right person to bring about a cultural change after the bank admitted manipulating Libor.
Financial consumer champion Martin Lewis told the Newsmaker that Wheatley's pledge to intervene in how banks "flog stuff" to consumer was music to his ears, but the challenge would be to deliver.
The FSA also published a review of sales incentives at 22 banks, insurers and investment firms, with most showing deficiencies that encouraged mis-selling.
"What we found is not pretty. Most of the incentive schemes we looked at were likely to drive people to mis-sell in order to meet targets and receive a bonus, and these risks were not being properly managed," Wheatley said.
The review found many examples of poor sales practices, such as "first past the post" incentives, where the first of 21 sales staff to reach a target could earn a "super bonus" of 10,000 pounds.
Another firm slapped big incentives on staff to sell the more expensive products to customers, despite claiming to offer impartial advice, the review said.
The watchdog also saw a sales person lie about the price of a product to increase his bonus, while another rushed through sales before the end of a quarter to avoid a pay cut.
Some firms intentionally "turned a blind eye" to mis-selling risks, while others that linked bonuses and other pay to the volume of sales needed to "dramatically" improve their standards, the FSA said.
The FSA review recommended rewarding good compliance with appropriate sales rules. Bonuses could also be reduced when sales volumes approach a certain level so there is no incentive to push through more sales.
Criminal sanctions were possible for "egregious" mis-selling, Wheatley said.
The FSA will be scrapped next year and replaced with a Financial Conduct Authority, headed by Wheatley, with a remit to protect customers. It will have powers to ban products and intervene earlier in their design to avoid people being ripped off.
(Additional reporting by Kirstin Ridley, Editing by Sinead Cruise and Will Waterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fsa-tells-banks-change-sales-rewards-064020953--sector.html
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List Building: Opt-in List Can Be Profitable For Your Online Business ...
If done correctly, building your opt-in list can be profitable for your online business and the best use of your time. There are quite literally dozens of free and low cost how-to manuals available on the Internet for building an opt-in list and generating traffic for your website. For more help visit to: www.build-huge-list.com. However, there are also hundreds of unscrupulous marketers eager to get in your wallet, rob you blind and leave you with empty promises. This article will present 3 free yet highly-profitable opt-in list building methods you should master before purchasing over-priced push-button tools or traffic. After reading countless articles and seeking expert advice, you come to realize that it?s time to start building your own opt-in list and using it to market your wares. Besides, if you?re interested in what you have to offer, certainly other people will be interested in learning about your opportunities, products or services as well. Right? Right! So to get the ball rolling, you open up your browser and surf over to Enlace or post an ad on Craigslist in hopes of finding a reliable ghostwriter to write content for your e-zone or newsletter. After your newsletter content has been written, you load your auto-responder with your newly-written content and upload your site to your web hosting account If you?re someone who has attempted to build an opt-in list, have had some success but would like to revive your list, keep reading. For more detail go to: www.freelist-pro.com.On the other hand, if you?re new to opt-in list building but want to learn how to build a profitable and responsive opt-in list fast, here are Cheap Air max 95 three quick and Air Max 90 easy ways for you to do just that. Two of the easiest ways to start generating traffic for your website, building your opt-in list and your credibility is by writing articles and participating in related forums. Writing and distributing well-written articles will allow you to establish credibility with your readers and pre-sell your wares. Participating in forums related to your interests will aid you in developing products or services your fellow forum members might be interested in buying. Understand that people aren?t going to buy something from you based on your recommendation alone if they don?t know you. So when you?ve gotten a few articles under your belt and participated in helping people solve problems in forums related to your topic of interest, then expect to receive traffic for your website, subscribers to your opt-in list and sales. When your traffic and opt-in list begins to grow from writing and distributing articles and participating in related forums, your next step is to find products or services that people want and need. Make sure that you choose products and services based upon your new found information from the forums and from that you?ve gathered from your existing opt-in list of subscribers. Again, never choose products or services to sell based on what you think your subscribers might like or profit potential. Instead, choose products and services based on research gathered in forums and responses to your distributed articles. This especially holds true if it?s someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people who have the experience in opt-in list building and experience is still the best teacher. While there are countless articles and e-books available on the subject of opt-in list building online, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust. Experienced opt-in list builders will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do Air Max LTD because they have gone through it. Even though most experienced opt-in list builders have a different slant on how to build a targeted and responsive opt-in list, you can almost always learn something new from their triumphs and failures and then take advantage of their experiences.
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CoolestGadgets: New Post: Meb Keflezighi Edition Sony Walkman W Series arrive at Walmart stores next month http://t.co/F0rj27XJ
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