Finance news. My opinion.

Russian investigators say they won’t close a probe against a Russian lawyer who died in jail of an untreated illness.

Sergei Magnitsky died in November 2009. He had been charged with tax evasion and arrested by the same police officials he had accused of a $230 million tax fraud. His death sparked outrage in Russia and globally.

Magnitsky’s family petitioned to get the probe against him closed. But the Investigative Department of the Interior Ministry said Thursday they must still contact his other close relatives to make sure they agree payday loan.

Magnitsky’s mother says Magnitsky does not have other close relatives.

Two prison doctors have been charged with oversight leading to death, but none of the officials Magnitsky accused of framing him have faced charges.

Source

Stocks wavered in midday trading Friday as investors balanced signs of future growth in the U.S. economy with a looming deadline for Congress to reach a deal in debt talks.

The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators rose more than Wall Street analysts were expecting, a sign that the economy may pick up in the coming months. But many investors remained cautious as a key Congressional committee remained deadlocked on ways to cut the U.S. deficit.

A bipartisan panel must agree on making at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts by Thanksgiving. If the committee fails, automatic spending cuts will take effect beginning in 2013. Economists worry that a deadlocked Congress will erode business confidence and slow the already-fragile economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 3 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 11,768 as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 index fell 4, or 0.3 percent, to 1,213. The Nasdaq composite slid 18, or 0.7 percent, to 2,569.

The Dow had been up as much as 84 points in early trading after borrowing costs fell for Italy and Spain. That is a signal that bond investors are less fearful of a default by those countries. Spain and Italy have had to pay high interest rates because bondholders fear that that they will default. Holders of Greek bonds were all but forced to take steep losses on that nation’s debt.

Europe’s debt problems are far from settled, however. Comments by German and British leaders Friday suggested that they have divergent views on how to address the debt crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned against expecting too much from the region’s leaders. British Prime Minister David Cameron called for “decisive action” to shore up the struggling currency union.

Positive economic reports this week _ including a drop in unemployment applications and an increase in industrial production _ barely budged markets because a European meltdown would easily drag down the U.S. economy, said Kim Caughey Forrest, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

“Our economy might be improving, but the fixation is on what’s going to happen with the world banking system if defaults happen in Europe,” she said. She said investors are reluctant to take big positions because no one knows how Europe’s problems will be resolved, or how U.S. companies’ future profits will be affected.

In corporate news, ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co. fell 2.5 percent after it said its second-quarter net income fell almost 6 percent, although its adjusted results narrowly beat expectations. Sales in emerging markets remained strong, and price hikes in other areas helped offset lower volumes.

Retailer Gap Inc. slid 3.5 percent after its third quarter revenue came in slightly below Wall Street’s forecasts. The company said materials costs are continuing to eat into profit margins. Salesforce.com plunged 9 percent after its quarterly results came in below estimates.

Source

World stock markets fell Wednesday as Europe’s festering debt crisis overshadowed figures showing that Americans increased their retail spending for a fifth straight month.

Benchmark oil slipped below $99 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and was little changed against the yen.

European shares fell in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped marginally to 5,517.44. Germany’s DAX shed 0.9 percent to 5,878.33 and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.4 percent to 3,036.76.

Wall Street also braced for a lower opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures falling 0.7 percent to 11,957 while S&P 500 futures lost 0.8 percent at 1,244.50.

The retreat in Europe followed losses in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.9 percent to close at 8,463.16, a six-week closing low. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2 percent to 18,960.90 and South Korea’s Kospi shed 1.6 percent to 1,856.07. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, and Australia also fell.

Mainland China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.5 percent to 2,466.96, its lowest closing this month. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 2.6 percent to 1,059.24.

Data on retail sales showed Americans spending more on autos, electronics and building supplies in October _ and at a faster rate than expected. Many saw the result as a sign that the U.S. economy may well avoid another recession as consumer spending is the biggest component of the country’s GDP.

Still, investors could not get past the mammoth debt loads carried by Greece and Italy, which are threatening to trigger an all-out financial crisis on the continent.

“The world does not believe the crisis is solved,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong. “The market is still very jittery and still worried about possible effect of economic slowdown and recession in Europe. I think this will depress the market for a quite a long period.”

And the problem isn’t just isolated to Greece or Italy, he said.

“It’s the problem of the entire Western world,” Lun said. “For Europe, it overborrowed for 12 years and for the U.S., it probably overspent for 30 years _ so 30 years of mismanagement cannot be corrected in one day.”

On Tuesday, higher interest rates on government debt issued by Italy, Spain and other countries rattled European stock markets. The interest rate on Italy’s 10-year bond jumped back above 7 percent, a dangerously high level.

Higher borrowing costs _ in the form of extra yields that must be paid for bonds regarded as riskier _ are a sign that investors are worried that those countries may have trouble paying their debts.

The debt crisis among the 17 nations that use the euro currency “appears to be deteriorating by the day,” analysts at Credit Agricole CIB said in a report. “Contagion has spread across eurozone bond markets like wildfire and the lack of action to create a firewall means that that there is little to extinguish it.”

Italy’s borrowing rate first crossed the 7 percent threshold last week, raising worries about Rome’s ability to manage its debts. Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to get rescued by international lenders when their borrowing rates crossed the same level.

Meanwhile, Chinese property shares were sharply lower amid falling housing prices as government efforts to cool the overheated housing industry take effect. Hong Kong-listed blue chip China Overseas Land & Investment fell 4.6 percent, while Poly Real Estate Group lost 4.8 percent.

Japan’s Olympus Corp. soared 15.6 percent amid easing worries that the company _ embroiled in a scandal over the concealment of huge investment losses _ will be delisted by the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Shares of Tiger Airways jumped 6.1 percent in Singapore trade after the carrier was cleared to increase its number of flights in Australia ahead of the busy Christmas travel period.

Mainland Chinese shares in real estate, cement, media and financial companies weakened following a report from the International Monetary Fund that warned China’s banks could face risks if real estate prices fall sharply or unpaid loans increase. The IMF also said other dangers could arise from growing imbalances in a Chinese economy that relies heavily on exports and investment to drive growth.

Shanghai-listed Ping An Insurance lost 4.6 percent while China Nonferrous Metal Industry lost 4.7 percent.

On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow rose 0.1 percent to 12,096.16. The S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent to 1,257.81, and the Nasdaq added 1.1 percent to 2,686.20.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 43 cents at $98.94 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.23 to settle at $99.37 in New York on Tuesday.

The euro fell to $1.3532 from $1.3543 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.94 yen from 77.04 yen.

Source

Leaders working to forge a free trade bloc in the Pacific plan to announce an outline for achieving that goal at an annual Asia-Pacific summit this weekend, one of many initiatives aimed at fending off recession as Europe struggles to resolve its debt crisis.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk ended a meeting of regional trade ministers with praise for Japan’s decision Friday to join negotiations on a U.S.-backed free trade arrangement that is viewed by many in the region as a basic building block for an eventual free trade zone encompassing all of Asia and the Pacific Rim.

The so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership is intended to complement other efforts to promote freer trade, and other countries can join if they are willing to meet the very high standards required, Kirk said.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation agenda has gained urgency with warnings from the European Union that its debt crisis could trigger a “deep and prolonged recession” next year. Such a recession would be felt sharply in the U.S., where growth is already anemic, and in Asia, which relies on Europe as a big market for its cars, clothing, consumer electronics and other exports.

But China, which some economists say is on course to overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest economy this decade, has been lukewarm about the Pacific trade pact.

Kirk said the ministers expect leaders of the countries involved in the so-called TPP to announce the broad outlines of a “high-standards, ambitious 21st-century trade pact.”

“Of course, many of us believe that the Trans-Pacific Partnership can be the basis for a long-term APEC goal of a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific,” he said.

At their summit, the leaders of the 21-member APEC forum also will endorse a range of “meaningful steps which will strengthen regional economic integration and expand trade,” he said.

Such strategies include better food security, increased trade and investment in environmental products and services, better access to financing for small and medium-size companies, faster customs clearance and greater harmony in regulatory standards.

The aim is to make it “cheaper, faster, and easier to do business in the APEC region,” according to a statement released by the ministers.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the ministerial meeting that by agreeing on something as rudimentary as shared safety standards for televisions, countries in the region saw exports of TVs jump by nearly half in three years.

By removing barriers and bottlenecks that slow business, APEC members hope to re-energize growth at a time when the world economy most needs dynamism in the Asia-Pacific region to offset the malaise spreading from crisis-stricken Europe. At the same time they are working toward a broader agreement, countries are continuing to forge separate free-trade deals.

“In the coming 12 months there is quite a strong likelihood that things will go worse,” Hong Kong’s chief executive, Donald Tsang, told a gathering of business leaders on the sidelines of the APEC meetings no teletrek payday advance. “Global performance will be dragged down and then there will be an awakening, I hope,” he said.

Overall, given APEC’s lack of negotiating power _ all decisions are by consensus _ prospects for major changes are slim. But over the years the group’s incremental efforts have helped build support for closer economic ties and freer trade.

The U.S. recently clinched long-sought free trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama _ agreements that if ratified will bring to 20 the number of countries that have free trade agreements with the U.S.

On Friday, Vietnam and Chile signed a free trade agreement on the sidelines of the APEC meetings that will further boost the already thriving trade between the two in Chilean copper and steel and Vietnamese garments, rice and coffee.

Japan has announced no timetable for joining the trans-Pacific free trade group, only its intention to join, a senior Japanese government official said Friday.

But the inclusion of the world’s third-largest economy would vastly expand the reach of the trade pact, which now includes the smaller economies of Chile, New Zealand, Brunei and Singapore. The U.S., Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Peru are negotiating to join.

To participate, Japan will have to eliminate tariffs on imports from all member economies _ a reciprocal move that its major manufacturers say will improve access to foreign markets and help keep the country from falling behind regional trading rivals.

Japan’s trade minister, Yukio Edano, backed the decision to join and said his government was well aware of the challenges it will face. But he has argued that by delaying further, Tokyo would lose the opportunity to help shape the trading bloc from the start.

China, the world’s second-biggest economy, has appeared tepid toward the plan, with an official saying in Beijing earlier this week that it might be “overly ambitious.”

Asked its stance, Chen Deming, the trade minister, said China expected Japan to live up to earlier pledges to promote regional integration through various forms. Moves toward closer regional economic ties should be “open and transparent,” he said.

“Up to now, we have not yet received any invitation. If one day we receive such an invitation we will seriously study it,” Chen said.

Kirk emphasized that the trans-Pacific bloc is meant to be open, though it requires members to meet high standards for openness and free trade.

“You should not wait for an invitation,” he said. “If they are willing meet the highest standard then any country is welcome to make the same decision the others have done.”

Source

Spanish telephone company Telefonica said Friday it lost euro429 million ($584 million) in the third quarter, its first quarterly loss in nine years, after hefty costs laying off workers in Spain’s moribund economy.

It compared to profits of euro5.1 billion in the same period of 2010, although that figure included a one-off gain from Telefonica’s takeover of Brazilian cell phone company Vivo.

Telefonica said the third quarter 2011 results included costs of euro1.87 billion in compensation for workers being laid off in Spain.

Revenue in Spain for the quarter was down 8.8 percent. But total revenue for the quarter _ in Spain and all the countries where Telefonica operates _ was up 3.7 percent to euro15.8 billion no fax payday advances.

The poor performance in Spain was offset by a 17.5 percent rise in revenue in Latin America.

Telefonica is eliminating up to 6,500 jobs, or close to 20 percent of its work force, in Spain through 2013 to reduce costs.

Telefonica’s profits for the first nine months of the year were down 69 percent to euro2.73 billion, again in part because of redundancy costs. Revenue for the January-September period rose 5.4 percent.

Telefonica shares were practically unchanged at euro13.9 in early trading.

Source

China’s high-flying economy is starting to lose altitude. The big question is whether the world’s economic superstar will descend gradually _ or so fast that it harms a fragile global economy.

China’s comedown is being engineered by its policymakers. They want to slow its growth rate just enough to cool inflation without sapping job growth.

It’s a delicate task.

“Nobody can say with any confidence” if they’ll succeed, says Barry Eichengreen, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

China’s explosive growth remains the envy of developed nations like the United States. It grew faster than any other major economy in the April-June quarter, according to The Associated Press’ latest quarterly Global Economy Tracker. Only Argentina’s much smaller economy matched China’s 9.5 percent annual growth rate.

By contrast, the U.S. economy grew at a 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter, before expanding 2.5 percent in the July-September period.

The AP’s Global Economy Tracker monitors economic and financial data in 30 countries representing more than 80 percent of global output.

Economists worry that China’s economy could suffer what they call a “hard landing.” A sudden plunge in China’s growth would harm the economies of the United States, Europe and small countries that need China to buy their coal, copper and other raw materials.

On Tuesday, a Chinese government group said manufacturing grew in October at the slowest pace in nearly three years, partly due to weak export orders. It forecast that the economy would slow further the rest of the year.

The threat from a slower-growing Chinese economy comes as the United States is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. And an agreement last week to ease Europe’s debt crisis might not prevent the continent from sliding back into a recession that would ripple through the United States and other countries.

When surveyed this year by the Society of Actuaries, corporate risk managers in the United States, Canada and elsewhere said a slowdown in China posed the greatest threat to their business.

A hard landing wouldn’t just squeeze U.S. and European exporters. It could also destabilize Chinese society. And it could escalate global trade tensions.

Hampered by inflation above 6 percent and slowing exports, China’s growth is expected to decelerate from 10.3 percent last year to 9.5 percent in 2011 and 9 percent in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF expects the global economy to grow 4 percent this year.

Developing countries emerged faster than other nations from the Great Recession. They’re now growing much faster than rich countries. According to the AP’s global tracker:

_The three fastest in the April-June quarter were China (a 9.5 percent annual growth rate), Argentina (9.5 percent) and Indonesia (6.5 percent).

_The laggards are from the industrialized world _ Japan (down 1.1 percent), Norway (up 0.3 percent) and Britain (up 0.6 percent).

_Growth is slowing worldwide. It weakened from a year earlier in 19 of 26 countries that reported April-June data.

China’s gaudy growth doesn’t mean much to Xie Jun, who runs a factory in the southern Chinese boomtown of Dongguan. He’s enduring a tough year.

His company makes and exports headphones, cell phones and computer accessories. It’s paying 30 percent to 50 percent more this year for chemicals, fuel and other raw materials. Labor costs have nearly doubled.

Xie’s customers are reducing orders, forcing him to lay off more than 10 percent of his staff at Dongguan Jincai Real Co. and leaving him with about 100 workers.

“I just feel hopeless,” Xie, 45, says. “It’s hard to say if it will get any better next year.”

China will likely account for nearly a third of global growth this year.

Exporting countries depend on China’s demand for raw materials and consumer goods. Mines in Australia and Chile supply coal, copper and iron ore. General Motors sells more vehicles in China than anywhere else, including the United States. China was the No. 3 destination for U.S. merchandise exports last year, behind Canada and Mexico.

China’s trading partners are watching warily to see whether it can avoid a hard landing. Economist Nouriel Roubini has defined a hard landing as a drop in annual growth to 5 percent or less. He says China must expand 8 percent a year just to keep enough people employed to “maintain its social and political stability cash advances pay day loan.”

Eswar Prasad, professor of global trade at Cornell University, puts the odds of a hard landing in China at 50-50.

Other analysts say they’re confident China’s policymakers will manage to reduce inflation gently without stifling growth too much.

The authorities “are well-aware of the risks,” says Bob Mark, who runs Black Diamond Risk Enterprises and has advised Chinese banks. “It’s not like they’re going to be blindsided.”

China’s central bank has raised interest rates five times since mid-2010 to try to shrink inflation. Even so, consumer prices jumped 6.2 percent from August 2010 to August 2011. That was fifth-fastest among the 30 countries in the AP’s global tracker. In the United States, by contrast, prices rose 3.8 percent in the 12 months ending in August.

News that China’s growth dipped to 9.1 percent in the July-September quarter from 9.5 in the April-June period was met with relief by some economists. Rajat Nag, managing director of the Asian Development Bank, says it suggests a soft landing ahead.

Eichengreen notes that Beijing’s communist authorities “have lots of levers they can pull, unlike U.S. authorities.”

Senior bureaucrats in effect run the economy. The government owns most of the biggest companies and banks. It controls the currency.

Officials can, for example, suppress the value of China’s currency, the yuan. A lower yuan makes Chinese goods cheaper overseas. The United States has long accused China of keeping its currency artificially low to give its exporters an unfair edge.

Chinese policymakers can also order state-owned banks to lend if the economy slows much. They can command local governments to keep workers busy building roads and bridges.

Roubini, a New York University economist who runs a research firm, thinks China’s authorities will use all those tools to keep the economy growing briskly through 2012. They’ll want to ensure a smooth transition next year, when a new president and premier will come to power.

But Roubini and others worry that the outlook after that is bleaker. He thinks China’s growth could sink to 5 percent or less in 2013 or 2014.

At the heart of the problem is how China has stoked its expansion. It hasn’t encouraged its consumers to drive the economy with their spending, as Americans do. Instead, it’s juiced growth by pushing exports and investing in factories, roads, railways and real estate.

Such investments account for about half of China’s gross domestic product, a broad gauge of economic activity. That is a wildly lopsided share that suggests China is investing in far more construction than it needs.

In most major countries, consumer spending, not investment, drives the economy. Last year, for example, consumers accounted for more than 70 percent of GDP in the United States, 63 percent in Britain, 58 percent in Germany and 57 percent in Japan. In China, consumer spending represented just 39 percent of GDP.

Behind China’s investment boom are bank loans that might never be repaid, because the projects aren’t expected to throw off enough revenue.

Roubini’s research firm estimates that China has wasted $1.4 trillion since 2008 on investments that will likely end up as bad debts.

Optimists say China is merely planning for the future. A growing middle class will eventually occupy the new houses, ride the new trains, fly from the new airports and drive new cars on the new highways. The new factories will make goods to meet rising demand at home and abroad.

But demographics pose another problem. China is aging fast. Largely, that’s because of population control policies that limit most families to one child. This year, 8.9 percent of Chinese were 65 or older. By 2021, 12.9 percent will be.

“A significant slowdown is coming because their labor force is aging,” Eichengreen says. By 2015 or 2016, he says, China’s growth could slow to 5 percent or 6 percent.

Economists have urged China to rely more on its consumers and less on exports and dubious investments. In Dongguan, factory owner Xie would agree.

“I am thinking about focusing more on the domestic market next year,” he says. “At least we have 1.3 billion people. It is a big market.”

Source

Asian stock markets were mostly lower Monday as investors shifted their focus from Europe’s debt woes to the strength of the U.S. economy. Japan sold the yen to limit its export-sapping strength.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.1 percent to 19,791.74 and South Korea’s Kospi fell 1 percent to 1,910.94. Benchmarks in Australia, mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan also posted losses.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo swung between positive and negative territory after Japan intervened to weaken its currency, which had earlier hit a new post World War II high against the greenback. The Nikkei was 0.2 percent lower at 9,021.08 in afternoon trading.

The strong yen has dented earnings of Japanese corporations such as Nintendo Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. and hurt the economy’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Finance Minister Jun Azumi said monetary authorities could continue intervening.

The dollar surged about 5 percent to above 79 yen, and Japan’s export sector _ whose fortunes are largely tied to the relative strength of the yen _ rose abruptly.

Isuzu Motors Corp. jumped 4.3 percent. Canon Inc. rose 1.7 percent and Nikon Corp. added 2.3 percent. Nintendo Co. gained 3.6 percent.

In Sydney, shares of Australian flag carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. jumped 4.3 percent after a court ordered employees of the world’s 10th-largest airlines back to work. The airline had grounded its entire fleet on Saturday following weeks of strikes by its workers, but an arbitration court on Sunday ordered an end to the strikes and canceled the staff lockout.

Last week, investors were cheered by the debt crisis deal reached by European leaders. European banks were asked to take a 50 percent loss on their holdings of Greek government bonds. They will also set aside more money to cushion against future losses. Leaders also pledged to expand the European Union’s bailout fund.

But economists caution that many details in the plan still have to be worked out, including the difficult task of deciding who will pay for it.

“With more questions than answers markets will be hungry for further details over coming weeks and until then it is difficult to see risk appetite stretching too far,” analysts at Credit Agricole CIB wrote in a research note.

This week, investors will likely turn their attention to the U.S.

A key jobs report for October, a Federal Reserve policy meeting and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s quarterly news conference are all due.

“This month is going to be another watershed insight into whether we are looking at a low growth environment or something worse,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “To maintain the low growth environment view, the market is going to want to see positive employment growth.”

A report Thursday showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a solid 2.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. That helped ease concerns that another recession might be nearing.

But while the economy is growing, it may not be enough to generate many jobs. The U.S. unemployment rate has been stuck at 9.1 percent for three months. Analysts expect roughly 100,000 jobs to be added in October. Anything less could raise concerns that the economy may slow.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.4034 from $1.4170 on Friday in New York. The dollar sprinted to 79.18 yen from 75.76 yen.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 96 cents at $92.36 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 64 cents to settle at $93.32 in New York on Friday.

Source

China and the European Union on Friday called off a summit of their leaders next week so European officials can remain at home for talks on the continent’s debt crisis.

The one-day meeting planned for Tuesday in the eastern Chinese city of Tianjin will be rescheduled to a later date, the Chinese government and the European Council announced.

The meeting was scheduled to include Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, EU President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other officials from the two sides. Several hundred European and Chinese businesspeople also were to have held a conference while the leaders met paydayloans.

Friday’s cancellation came after European leaders scheduled meetings through the weekend to seek a solution to the continent’s debt crisis.

In a phone call with van Rompuy, Wen said the most important thing is to prevent the debt crisis from spreading and “a serious economic recession,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Source

The International Criminal Court will investigate three to six people in Ivory Coast for their actions during the West African nation’s violent six-month-long political crisis, the court’s top prosecutor said.

“We will focus on the most egregious and the most responsible,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo said late Saturday during his visit to Ivory Coast as part of the court’s recently opened investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity. Officials said Sunday that he had left the country.

Moreno-Ocampo said national authorities should investigate other suspects.

He said the public will not know the names of the international court’s suspects until he collects evidence and the judges review it.

“I don’t know (who they are) yet,” he said.

Earlier this month the court’s judges authorized the prosecutor to investigate violence committed after November 2010.

On Saturday, Moreno-Ocampo said the probe may look at violence committed as early as 2002.

“Today people volunteered to provide us with more information,” he said. “The judges are requesting more information and we will provide it.”

Human rights groups have called on the court to probe violence committed before the elections, when the nation was plunged into civil war, then underwent a de facto split along north-south lines.

Former president Laurent Gbagbo failed to hold elections when his first term ended in 2005. After a poll last November, he refused to accept his electoral defeat. Thousands died during the political standoff that followed.

Moreno-Ocampo did not meet Gbagbo during his visit, but said: “We will probably request through his lawyers to interview him.”

On Sunday, a spokeswoman for Ivory Coast’s prosecutor’s office said authorities arrested a fugitive military commander accused of serious crimes while working as a top aide to the former first lady. Habiba Coulibaly said Commander Anselme Seka Yapo was arrested Saturday.

In 2005 the U.N. accused Simone Gbagbo of leading death squads to kill opposition members.

French and U.N. forces assisted the forces loyal to President Alassane Ouattara who removed Gbagbo from power in April. Ouattara took office in May.

Ouattara asked the international court to investigate crimes committed by both sides during the postelection crisis payday loan no faxing.

During his visit Moreno-Ocampo met with Ouattara, with Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, with victims, members of the opposition and with the president of the newly formed reconciliation commission.

The commission, the prosecutor said, can address victims’ needs immediately, unlike the court.

“For those who were raped, who lost their homes, they need assistance now,” he said. “They don’t need to wait for a judge’s decision.”

Human Rights Watch says over a dozen people on both sides, including Gbagbo, led fighters to commit war crimes and likely crimes against humanity during the postelection violence.

Gbagbo’s spokesman Kone Katinan has said if he is to be judged, it should be by his own people rather than by an international tribunal.

Pro-Gbagbo newspapers have accused the international court of being one-sided. But residents have expressed optimism about the court’s involvement.

“It’s good to have someone from the outside of the country investigating … they can be more impartial, and more credible,” said beauty product distributor Kone Tresor Korona, 33, a resident of Abidjan who hails from the north, like Ouattara.

“Since the government is also doing an investigation, we can compare the (results of the) two, and hopefully when we put them together we can be closer to the truth,” Korona said.

The Ivory Coast investigation is the court’s seventh, all of them in Africa. So far, none of the cases has reached a verdict.

Ivory Coast is not a member of the court, but has accepted its jurisdiction in the case. It is the first time the court has opened an investigation in a nonmember nation following such a recognition of jurisdiction by a nonmember state.

Despite their lack of member status, the prosecutor said authorities have welcomed him.

“This is the first time in which we have a good relationship with national authorities. They are allowing us to (speak with) victims,” Moreno-Ocampo said. “It’s an interesting, new experience.”

Source

Hundreds of protesters, emboldened by the growing national Occupy Wall Street movement, streamed through midtown Manhattan on Tuesday in what they called a “Millionaires March.”

They marched two by two up the sidewalk, planning to pass the homes of some of New York City’s wealthiest residents. An organizer said they didn’t have a permit and wanted to avoid blocking pedestrian traffic.

“No Billionaire Left Behind,” said a placard hoisted by Arlene Geiger, who teaches economics at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Protesters expressed concern about how much less the wealthy will pay _ and who would be negatively affected _ when New York’s 2 percent “millionaires’ tax” expires in December.

In the closest they’ve come to naming names, the protesters planned to visit the homes of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and oil tycoon David Koch, among others.

Protesters have been camped out for weeks in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street, saying they’re fighting for the “99 percent,” or the vast majority of Americans who do not fall into the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.

Their causes range from bringing down Wall Street to fighting global warming. The movement gained traction through social media, and protests have taken place in several other cities nationwide.

In Boston, hundreds of college students marched through downtown Boston on Monday and gathered on Boston Common, holding signs that read “Fund education, not corporations.”

The protesters are angry with an education system they say mimics “irresponsible, unaccountable, and unethical financial practices” of Wall Street.

About 50 protesters in Boston were arrested overnight after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown greenway near where they have been camped out for more than a week, police said.

Several hundred protesters were arrested in New York more than a week ago after police said they ignored warnings to stay in place. There was no word on any arrests in Tuesday’s protest in New York.

The protest comes as New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report showing that Wall Street is again losing jobs because of global economic woes, threatening tax revenue for a city and state heavily reliant on the financial industry.

“Excessive risk-taking on Wall Street was a major factor leading to the financial crisis and the recession,” DiNapoli said. “Regulatory changes that reduce risk and focus attention on long-term profitability rather than short-term gains will enhance stability.”

Christopher Guerra, a 27-year-old artist and Occupy Wall Street protester from Newark, N.J., said he thought the job losses weren’t necessarily bad.

“That means more people on our side,” said Guerra, who calls himself an Eisenhower Republican but says he’s opposed to today’s corporate behavior. “The companies are destroying this country by helping themselves, not the people, and pushing jobs out of America.

“If they get shafted, they will realize that what we are saying is true.”

Source