Thursday, January 19, 2012

SAVE THE INTERNET– About PIPA, the Protect-IP Act - Learn about these destructive bills.

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Thanks to action by a broad and bipartisan coalition of Internet users, companies, and organizations, the U.S. House of Representatives has now put the brakes on SOPA, a well-intentioned but deeply flawed bill that would use Internet censorship to combat overseas copyright infringement. Even President Obama's White House has joined the opposition.

But nevertheless, the Senate is continuing to move forward — and fast — with its equally dangerous version of the bill, called PIPA, the Protect-IP Act. As written, PIPA would import censorship and surveillance techniques pioneered by countries like China and Iran, reversing longstanding U.S. policy on Internet freedom, betraying U.S. First Amendment values, damaging our standing around the world, threatening our job-creating innovators, and undermining Internet security for everyone.

Today is a day for action across the Internet. Learn about these destructive bills. Tell your Senator what you think. Congress needs to hear from you.

Read More: EFF, CDT, Future of Music Coalition, Heritage Foundation, Stop American Censorship, ReadWriteWeb

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Barack Obama Calls for Tax Breaks to Return Jobs From Abroad By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — President Obama said on Wednesday that he would propose tax incentives for companies to bring home manufacturing jobs they had moved overseas, and curtail tax breaks for those that keep relocating jobs abroad.

Flanked by executives from the aerospace, chemical and furniture industries — all of whom are building or expanding factories in the United States — Mr. Obama declared that the nation was beginning to see the reversal of a long-term trend toward outsourcing. He called the new trend, perhaps inevitably, “insourcing.”

“We’re at a unique moment, an inflection point, a period where we’ve got the opportunity for those jobs to come back,” Mr. Obama said in the White House, after meeting with the executives. The American economy, he noted, has added manufacturing jobs for two years in a row, after more than a decade of losses.

The president did not offer details of the tax proposals, which presumably would be subject to approval by Congress, though he renewed his call on lawmakers to approve a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut that will expire at the end of February.

Mr. Obama said an increase in labor costs in China was eroding its advantage over the United States as a manufacturing base, a message the White House sought to buttress by circulating a research report from the Boston Consulting Group, a prominent management consulting organization. The president also said recent trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama would open markets for American exports.

Economists said small changes in tax policy would play only a marginal role in deciding where companies build factories. But with labor costs rising overseas, such changes could help reinforce a fledgling trend, they said. “There’s been a little bit of momentum on ‘insourcing’ because a lot of firms overdid it,” said Jared Bernstein, the former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “So it could help a bit at the margin.”

Mr. Obama cited examples from companies represented in the room: Ford Motor, which the president said had moved 2,000 jobs back to the United States; Master Lock, which relocated manufacturing to Milwaukee from China; and Lincolnton Furniture, a specialty manufacturer, which set up shop in North Carolina after its owner, Bruce Cochran, closed a family-owned furniture company in 1996 and spent time consulting with companies about moving operations to China and Vietnam.

“I don’t want America to be a nation that’s primarily known for financial speculation, and racking up debt and buying stuff from other nations,” the president said. “I want us to be known for making and selling products all over the world stamped with three proud words, ‘Made in America.’ ”

Mr. Obama’s message served as a riposte to the Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney, who repeated his charge Tuesday, in his speech after the New Hampshire primary, that the president was hostile to free enterprise.

One of the executives at the meeting, James M. Guyette of Rolls-Royce North America, said his company was making investments in Indiana, where it builds aircraft engines, and in Virginia, where it opened an advanced manufacturing and research campus last year that will eventually employ 500 people.

In an interview, Mr. Guyette said Rolls-Royce was not actually moving operations back to the United States. But he said it was pouring money into American operations, like a factory in Indianapolis that once had the company’s highest labor costs and lowest productivity. Negotiations with the United Automobile Workers union had cut those costs, he said, and made the factory competitive again. “Everyone could see where this road was going to end, if we didn’t do it differently,” he said.

Via | Nyt

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

FOTO HISTÓRICA: A chegada do corpo do Saudoso Presidente Dr. Agostinho Neto à Luanda...

FOTO HISTÓRICA: A chegada do corpo do Saudoso Presidente Dr. Agostinho Neto à Luanda...Chegada do corpo do Saudoso Presidente Dr. Agostinho Neto à Luanda...

Henriques Teles Carreira (IKO) e João Luís Neto (XIETU)....Comandantes!

African Cup of Nations-bound Palancas Negras of Angola arrived in the Federal Capital, Abuja

A 39-man contingent of the 2012 African Cup of Nations-bound Palancas Negras of Angola arrived in the Federal Capital, Abuja on Tuesday ahead of today’s international friendly game against the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

angolan-fan[1]The delegation touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at 4.33pm aboard a chartered aircraft, which will fly the team back to Luanda on Wednesday evening immediately after the match.

President of the Federacao Angolana de Futebol, Mr. Pedro de Morais Neto led the delegation, which also included vice presidents of the Federation, the Head Coach, four Assistant Coaches, team manager, journalists, psychologist, team doctor, physiotherapist, equipment manager and 22 players. The team trained on Tuesday night at the mainbowl of the National Stadium.

They were received on arrival by General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, Barrister Musa Amadu and the Director of Technical, Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme, as well as a battery of media representatives.

The Palancas Negras and officials are quartered at the Transcorp Hilton hotel, and will have a light walk-out on Wednesday morning. The match co-ordination meeting will also take place on Wednesday morning, at the NFF Secretariat.

FIFA referee Aguidissou Crespin from Republic of Benin will be at the centre, to be assisted by compatriots Padonou Prosper (1st Assistant) and Fassinou Alexis (2nd Assistant). Nigerian FIFA referee Bunmi Ogunkolade will be the fourth official.

The Nigeria Football Federation reiterated on Tuesday that gates will be thrown open for the match.

Amadu said: “We want Nigerians to come out en masse to the National Stadium, Abuja and bond together, and also support the Super Eagles in this match against Angola.

It is an important game for our team as it prepares for the African Cup of Nations qualifying match against Rwanda next month”.

The Super Eagles will fly out to Monrovia on Friday for another international friendly match, this time against the Lone Star of Liberia, which will take place at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia on Sunday, 15th January.

Coach Jose Carlos Vidigal expects a tough game from the Super Eagles as his wards set into the final stages of preparation for the three-week, 16-nation African Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, starting next week.

On his part, Nigeria’s Coach Stephen Keshi will have a good look at the boys he has been drilling at residential camping since last month, with a view to seeing which of them would be good enough to win shirts in the team to face Rwanda in a 2013 African Cup of Nations qualifier in Kigali next month.

VVG

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Angola Xyami – Best Articles Directory, Free articles for your website, eZine or newsletters!

Angola Xyami – Best Articles Directory

 

Angola Xyami – Best Articles Directory, Free articles for your website, eZine or newsletters!

Angola Xyami best articles about angola

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Angola Xyami – Best Articles Directory, Free articles for your website, eZine or newsletters!

Republican of Angolan Banking System Ready for Influx of Oil Dollars, Emidio Pinheiro CEO Says

Jan. 10 - Angolan banks are preparing to handle hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign oil companies operating in the African country when a law requiring them to use local lenders comes into effect later this year.

Angolan Banking System Ready for Influx of Oil Dollars, CEO Says

Emidio Pinheiro, the chief executive officer of Banco Fomento Angola, the country’s second biggest private bank, expects oil companies to start using local banks to pay part of their taxes and suppliers by the end of June.

“It’s a very significant challenge for the financial system,” Pinheiro said in a phone interview from Luanda. “I believe we will be ready for it.”

In the past, oil companies weren’t required to use banks in Angola, Africa’s biggest producer of crude after Nigeria, as lenders couldn’t handle such transactions, Agencia Angola Press reported on Oct. 26, citing a proposal of the new oil law.

The law, approved by parliament in Luanda on Nov. 29, will be phased in so that Angolan banks can adjust to it, Pinheiro said.

The southern African country, which emerged from a civil war in 2002, is adopting measures to increase transparency in the banking sector, said Pinheiro.

Last year, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos signed into law a bill designed to prevent money laundering and the funding of terrorist activities. The country ranked in the bottom 15 of 183 countries in a Transparency International corruption study last year.

“Such laws will bring more credibility to Angola’s economy and create a more business-friendly environment,” said Pinheiro.

Booming Economy

Angola is attracting more foreign companies as its economy booms. Gross domestic product is is expected to grow 10.8 percent this year, up from an estimated 3.7 percent in 2011, according to the International Monetary Fund.

“There is a lot of interest in Angola from foreign investors, mainly because the country’s energy sector remains robust,” he said. “There is also interest in farming and other industries.”

About 21 banks operate in Angola, including Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s largest lender. Banco Fomento Angola, which is controlled by Banco BPI SA, Portugal’s third-biggest publicly traded lender, accounted for more than 60 percent of BPI’s nine- month net income last year, according to BPI.

--Editors: Hilton Shone, Digby Lidstone | Bloomberg

If Iran e Russia dump dollar for rial and ruble; hike in crude oil prices and disrupt the interests of the US and its allies that depend on oil imports from Iran


Russian ruble notes (file photo)

Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Seyyed Reza Sajjadi says Iran and Russia have turned to their national hard currencies instead of the American dollar in reciprocal trade exchanges.

Sajjadi said on Saturday that the proposal for the replacement of the US dollar with the Iranian rial and Russian ruble was raised during a meeting between Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the 11th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) last June.
Permanent SCO members include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran, along with India, Mongolia and Pakistan, is an observer state to the intergovernmental mutual-security organization.
The Iranian envoy said Tehran and Moscow switched to their national currencies in preference after the meeting between their presidents.
Sajjadi also pointed to Russia' strong opposition to sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, saying Russians have clearly announced that they will not accept fresh anti-Iran bids that target the country's Central Bank and financial institutions.
He also described new US sanctions against Iran as “illegal and unilateral”, stressing that Russia has at times called for a peaceful solution to Iran's atomic case through negotiations.
On December 31, US President Barack Obama signed into law fresh economic sanctions against Iran's Central Bank in an apparent bid to punish foreign companies and banks that do business with the Iranian financial institution.
The bill requires foreign financial firms to make a choice between doing business with Iran's Central Bank and oil sector or with the US financial sector.
The legislation will not take effect for six months in a bid to provide oil markets with time to adjust.
Meanwhile, energy experts say sanctions could lead to a major hike in crude oil prices and disrupt the interests of the US and its allies that depend on oil imports from Iran.
Facing major economic troubles, the United States is reportedly the world's largest debtor nation.
MP/HGH/IS

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