uniglobe travel: June 2013

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

New credit rating agency to challenge Big 3 firms

Guan Jianzhong, chairman of the Universal Credit Rating Group, delivers his speech at the launch ceremony in Hong Kong Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Chinese credit rating company Dagong and its Russian and U.S. partners are launching a new venture to challenge the dominance of the major rating agencies that were blamed for contributing to the global financial crisis.Officials said Tuesday the Universal Credit Rating Group is aimed at "providing some balance" to the industry, traditionally cornered by Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Guan Jianzhong, chairman of the Universal Credit Rating Group, attends the launch ceremony in Hong Kong Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Chinese credit rating company Dagong and its Russian and U.S. partners are launching a new venture to challenge the dominance of the major rating agencies that were blamed for contributing to the global financial crisis.Officials said Tuesday the Universal Credit Rating Group is aimed at "providing some balance" to the industry, traditionally cornered by Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

HONG KONG (AP) ? Chinese credit rating company Dagong launched a new venture with Russian and U.S. partners on Tuesday to challenge the dominance of the major rating agencies that were blamed for contributing to the global financial crisis.

Officials said the Universal Credit Rating Group is aimed at "providing some balance" to the industry, traditionally cornered by Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch.

The Big Three established agencies came under fire for giving high ratings to complex pools of mortgages and other debt. The U.S. government is suing S&P for misleading investors over the quality of mortgage-backed investments in the run-up to the crisis that erupted in late 2008.

"Credit ratings are indispensable in global economic operation, and it is obvious that the current rating system needs reforming and introducing new thinking," said Universal Chairman Guan Jianzhong.

As head of Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., Guan has previously criticized his Western rivals' for treating U.S and European governments too favorably. Privately owned Dagong was a little-known outfit until it issued its first government debt rating in 2010, declaring the United States a worse risk than China.

Dagong, RusRating and U.S.-based Egan-Jones Ratings will have an equal share of the venture, which will have an initial investment of $9 million and be based in Hong Kong.

Guan and other Universal executives said they hoped to attract other local rating agencies to join their venture. They plan to develop a "dual-rating" system in which Universal and the local agency would each issue their own rating so investors can "see there is a difference of view and then the investors can make their own mind up," said Universal CEO Richard Hainsworth, who is also president of RusRating.

Universal "is going to provide a desperately needed check on some major assumptions that are provided by the ratings that currently exist in the marketplace," said Sean Egan, a Universal director and president of Egan-Jones.

Ratings agencies play a key role in finance but they got little public attention until the global financial crisis, when the Moody's, S&P and Fitch came under fire for giving overly optimistic ratings to complex mortgage-backed investments, giving even risk-adverse investors the confidence to buy them.

When the value of the investments turned out to be worth less than thought, the agencies downgraded their ratings, spreading panic among investors and leading the U.S. government to conclude the crisis couldn't have happened without the rating agencies. In its lawsuit against S&P, the government is demanding $5 billion in penalties and alleges that it gave high marks to the investments because it wanted to win more business from the banks that sold them.

The dominance of the Big Three has also raised concerns in Europe.

Britain's House of Lords said in a 2011 report that they accounted for more than 90 percent of the market.

Earlier this month, Dagong became the 34th rating agency approved to operate in the European Union by regulators, who have been seeking to expand competition.

Dagong was denied permission to operate in the United States in 2010 amid a dispute over Beijing's reluctance to share information with American accounting regulators.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-25-China-Credit%20Rating%20Rival/id-34b23480bdff403f9476e989fbe09494

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Car bombs kill dozens in Baghdad

By Kareem Raheem

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Ten car bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital on Monday, killing nearly 40 people in markets and garages on the evening of a Shi'ite Muslim celebration, police and medical sources said.

Some of the attacks targeted districts where Shi'ites were commemorating the anniversary of the birth of a revered Imam, but there also were explosions in mixed neighborhoods and districts with a high population of Sunnis.

The violence reinforced a growing trend since the start of the year, with more than 1,000 people killed in militant attacks in May alone, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006-07.

Waleed, who witnessed one of Monday's explosions in which five people were killed in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City, described a scene of chaos: "When the explosion happened, people ran in all directions."

"Many cars were burned, pools of blood covered the ground, and glass from car windows and vegetables were scattered everywhere."

Eight people were killed in two car bomb explosions in the central district of Karada, one of them in a car garage. Two car bombs exploded simultaneously near a market in the western district of Jihad, killing eight.

Separately, a bomb placed in a cafe in the northern city of Mosul killed five people, pushing Monday's death toll over 40.

Insurgents, including al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, have been recruiting from the country's Sunni minority, which feels sidelined following the U.S.-led invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein and empowered majority Shi'ites.

Since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December 2011, critics say Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has consolidated his power over the security forces and judiciary, and has targeted several high-level Sunni leaders for arrest.

Sunnis took to the streets last December in protest against Maliki, but the demonstrations have thinned and are now being eclipsed by intensifying militant activity.

Sectarian tensions have been inflamed by the civil war in Syria, which is fast spreading into a region-wide proxy war, drawing in Shi'ite and Sunni fighters from Iraq and beyond to fight on opposite sides of the conflict.

Political deadlock in Baghdad has strained relations with Iraq's ethnic Kurds who run their own administration in the north of the country, and are at odds with the central government over land and oil.

(Reporting Kareem Raheem; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seven-bomb-blasts-kill-27-people-iraqi-capital-170556994.html

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Egypt's Shiite killings raise alarm on hate speech

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's Islamist president on Monday condemned the brutal killing of four Shiites by a cheering Sunni Muslim mob while the police looked on, saying the culprits must be swiftly brought to justice.

But opponents of President Mohammed Morsi said he was in part to blame for implicitly supporting his hard-line allies as they stir up incitement against Shiites in response to Syria's civil war. A week earlier, Morsi appeared on stage with hard-line clerics denouncing Shiites as "filthy." Critics warn that militant Islamists are acting with dangerous impunity.

Sunday's attack in the village of Zawiyet Abu Musalam, near the Pyramids of Giza, came as about 30 Shiites were having a meal to mark a religious occasion. Hundreds of young men descended on them in the house.

In online videos of the killings, young men armed with metal and wooden clubs, swords and machetes, beat the Shiites on the head and back, trapping them in the narrow entrance of the house.

The Shiites beg for mercy as blood streams down their heads and soaks their robes. A crowd pressing around them triumphantly chants "Allahu akbar" or "God is great." Others screamed "You sons of dogs!" One video shows a young man dragging the motionless and bloodied body of one victim by a rope.

The videos appeared genuine and conformed with Associated Press reporting on the attack.

Among those killed was a prominent Shiite cleric, Hassan Shehata. Afterward, the attackers congratulated each other, one witness, local activist Hazem Barakat, said in written and video account of the events he posted online. He said that in the weeks preceding the attack, ultraconservative Salafi clerics in the area had been speaking out against Shiites.

A two-paragraph statement by Morsi's office condemned the killings. It said the culprits must be found quickly and brought to justice, vowing that authorities will not be "lenient" with anyone who interferes with the nation's security and stability.

Police identified 13 suspects but have not yet made any arrests, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, also denounced the killings.

But in a seeming show of conservative Sunnis' distaste for the sect, he would not refer to the victims as Shiites. In a posting on his Facebook page, Ahmed Aref identified them as "the four dead who have beliefs of their own that are alien to our society."

The violence was startling, even in a country where violence has increased dramatically in the two years after the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Mobs in rural areas have in recent months lynched suspected criminals amid a rise in gangs robbing motorists and banks. Police still often don't act to stop crimes, and the public has grown increasingly frustrated over increasing economic hardships and shortages. Violence has also become a feature of Egypt's polarized politics, with opponents and supporters of Morsi repeatedly clashing in the streets.

Attacks against Christians, their businesses or churches have risen in frequency. They are often sparked by specific feuds ? even if fed by hard-line clerics' anti-Christian statements.

Sunday's attack, in contrast, seemed a straight-forward unleashing of hatreds, prompted only by the Shiites' religious practice. Egypt's population of 90 million is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, with about 10 percent Christians. The small Shiite minority is largely hidden and its size never firmly established, though some estimates put it as high as 1 or 2 million.

"Killing and dragging Egyptians because of their faith is a hideous result of the disgusting 'religious' discourse which was left to mushroom," top reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei wrote in his Twitter account.

"We are waiting for decisive steps from the regime and Al-Azhar (mosque) before we lose what is left of our humanity."

His Dustour Party blamed the president. It said the attack was "a direct result of the disgusting hate speech ... escalating and expanding under the sight ... of the regime and in presence of its president and with his blessings."

Al-Azhar, the world's primary seat of Sunni Islamic learning, which has also warned against the spread of Shiism in Egypt, said in a statement Monday that it was "terrified" by the killings. "Islam, Egypt and the Egyptians are unfamiliar with killing because of religion, doctrine or ideology," it said.

The past few months have seen a dramatic rise in anti-Shiite hate speech by Salafis, many of whom are Morsi supporters. Salafis, an ultraconservative movement of Sunni Islam, view Shiites as heretics and regularly denounce them on TV talk shows, websites and in mosque sermons, warning they seek to bring their faith to Egypt. The divide between the two main sects of Islam dates back to a dispute over succession following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th Century.

Bahaa Anwar Mohammed, a spokesman for Egypt's Shiites, accused Morsi and the Brotherhood of "sacrificing Egypt's Shiites to please the Salafis."

A presidential spokesman on Monday rejected any link between Morsi and anti-Shiite comments.

"The presidency is responsible for the official statements and will not comment on unofficial statements," spokesman Ihab Fahmy told reporters. "The president's position is against any kind of incitement of violence or hatred among Egyptian society."

But analysts believe Morsi is trying to strengthen Salafi backing ahead of mass protests due June 30 by secular and liberal opposition and youth movements calling for his ouster. The tactic came after one Salafi group, al-Nour Party, dropped its support for the president.

At a June 15 rally attended by Morsi, aimed at showing support for Syrian rebels, Salafi clerics railed against Shiites. One cleric, Mohammed Hassan, called on Morsi "not to open the doors of Egypt" to Shiites, saying that "they never entered a place without corrupting it." Another called Shiites "filthy." Morsi remained silent during the speeches.

In a similar vein, a cleric who addressed the rally denounced those participating in the June 30 protests as non-believers, reciting a prayer traditionally used against "enemies" of God and Islam.

The increase in anti-Shiite rhetoric came in part as a backlash against an attempt by Morsi to reach out to mainly Shiite Iran after nearly 30 years of frosty Cairo-Tehran relations. The conflict in Syria, pitting Sunni rebels against the regime dominated by Alawites ? an offshoot of Shiism ? has further fueled the rhetoric.

The al-Nour Party has put up posters around the county saying Shiites have distorted the Quran, Islam's holy book, and kill Sunnis.

Khaled Said, a spokesman for the Salafi Front, a major group in the movement, condemned the killings in Zawiyet Abu Musalam.

But, he added, "this is a normal reaction to blasphemy and corruption of the faith by Shiites."

"We said before that we will not permit Iranian intervention and expansion in Egypt."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-shiite-killings-raise-alarm-hate-speech-192036237.html

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Skywire Pictures Nik Wallenda Crosses Grand Canyon - Business ...

UPDATE: He made it! After nearly 23 minutes, Nik Wallenda is the first human to ever cross the Little Colorado River Gorge on a wire.

Daredevil Nik Wallenda has a wife, three children, and he's been training for one moment his entire life:

To tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon without any safety net or harness. Making it across means life, falling means death.

The National Park Service would never allow a stunt like this over the Grand Canyon ? so Wallenda had to settle for the "little Grand Canyon" over the gorge of the Colorado River near Cameron, Arizona, on tribal lands of the Navajo Nation.

Wallenda's grandfather died before viewers' eyes on live television trying to do a similar, harness-free walk.

"Thank you Jesus," Wallenda kept repeating with each step. "You're my king, you're my protector, you're my shield, you're my strength, you're my lord." He battled high winds and balanced with a 45 pound bar on the 2-inch wire. He reached the half-way point on the wire at the 11:30 minute mark.

The quarter-mile walk at 1,500 feet in the air took more than 20 minutes ? in winds ranging from a safe 18 mph to a more treacherous 30 mph. Wallenda knelt twice to wait out the stronger wind.

Here's his bio on Discovery's website:

Nik Wallenda is known as 'The King of the High Wire.' He is the seventh generation of the legendary Great Wallendas and began walking the wire at age 4. He and his family have performed some of the most famous stunts in the world, but no one else has ever dared to take on the Grand Canyon.

His incredible walk was aired on the Discovery Channel Sunday evening on a live feed.

This isn't the first feat on the tightrope for Wallenda. Last year, he successfully?walked across Niagara Falls, according to NPR.

Here are some shots of him crossing the Grand Canyon.