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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
World News
December 21 – January 3, 2014
Top general warns over ‘hollowedout’ armed British forces BRITAIN is in danger of being left with hollowed-out armed forces, the UK’s top military officer has warned. Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, said this would be with “exquisite” equipment but without the personnel needed to use it. In a speech, he said training levels were being squeezed and manpower was increasingly seen as “an overhead”. The British armed forces are due to be significantly reduced in numbers by thousands of personnel by 2020. The Army will lose 20,000 soldiers, the Navy 6,000 personnel and the RAF 5,000. Gen Houghton emphasised that if the UK wished to stay in what he called the Premier League of smart power, then it must invest in armed forces that could generate
Prince William (right) was officer training at Sandhurst at the time he left one of the messages.
The British armed forces are due to be significantly reduced in numbers by thousands of personnel by 2020.
credible hard power capability and deterrence. BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said this first annual talk by the new chief of the defence staff contained rather blunter warnings than many had anticipated
US businessman escapes Bolivia AN American businessman detained in Bolivia without charge for more than two years has escaped back to the US, officials in both countries say. Jacob Ostreicher had faced allegations of money laundering linked to a rice-growing business. Mr Ostreicher, 55, said Bolivian officials had attempted to extort money from him in exchange for his freedom. Bolivian authorities say 15 people have been arrested in connection with the alleged extortion ring. An unnamed US state department official told media that Mr Ostreicher had left Bolivia. A member of his family said he
had returned to New York, where he has a flooring business. Bolivian Justice Minister Cecilia Ayllon told a news conference on Tuesday that Mr Ostreicher had fled to Peru and caught a commercial flight to US, reports AFP news agency. Mr Ostreicher is said to have spent 18 months in a Bolivian jail and a year under house arrest on suspicion of money laundering in connection with a rice-growing business. He accused government employees in the South American country of illegally selling 18,000 tons of rice and stealing the business’s equipment, worth more than $50m (£30m).
- Gen Houghton said the UK must both fund and use its armed forces properly. Gen Houghton took over in the late summer, at a time when the effects of the 8% cuts to the defence budget started having a clear impact on armed forces’ morale and what the UK could offer its allies on the international stage. With the regular Army cutting thousands of soldiers and much future spending committed to equipment, Gen Houghton gave a clear warning to any future government wishing to cut defence spending again in 2015, said our correspondent. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, in what he described as “an outing of professional conscience”, he said Britain risked being left without enough military manpower in the future, with the Royal Navy particularly vulnerable. He said: “Unattended, our current course leads to a strategically incoherent force structure: exquisite equipment, but insufficient resources to man that equipment or train on it. “This is what the Americans call the spectre of the hollow-force. We are not there yet; but across defence I would identify the Royal Navy as being perilously close to its critical mass in manpower terms.”
US Federal Reserve pulls back on stimulus effort THE US Federal Reserve has announced a slowdown in its effort to boost the US economy. The central bank said it planned to scale back its $85bn (£51.8bn) a month bond buying programme by $10bn a month. Stimulus of this kind is designed to lower interest rates and boost economic activity The Fed’s governing committee cited stronger job growth as a reason for the decision to begin winding down its programme of bond buying. The announcement followed a two-day meeting in Washington DC. The Fed’s decision to begin to ease its extraordinary stimulus efforts also indicates that the central bank believes that the US economy has finally strengthened enough that it no longer needs as much support. The $10bn reduction comes from two areas: the Fed will reduce its US Treasury purchases from $45bn to $40bn per month as well as its buying of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from $40bn to $35bn per month. In its forecast for the coming years, the Fed said the employment
situation will improve faster than previously expected. It said the unemployment rate will fall to 6.3% in 2014 from its current level of 7%. This could set the pace for further reductions in the Fed’s stimulus efforts in the coming year. In a press conference to discuss the Fed’s announcement, Chairman Ben Bernanke said: “If incoming data broadly support the committee’s support for employment we will likely reduce the pace of committee’s purchases in further steps at future meetings.” However, he also cautioned: “Continued progress is by no means certain. Adjustments will be deliberate and dependent on incoming information.” ‘SYMBOLIC’ US markets cheered the news. The Dow Jones surged to close up 292.71 points, or 1.84%. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes were up over 1% as well. That is partially because, while significant, the amount of the pullback in bond-buying was slightly less than expected.
“Ultimately this a very small amount - it’s symbolic rather than more substantive,” Steve Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments, told the BBC. “The takeaway from this is that while the Federal Reserve might be reducing the dosage of the antibiotic, they’re not going to be discharging the patient anytime soon.” INFLATION WOES The Fed also said it remained committed to seeing prices rise before it would completely withdraw its stimulus. The central bank sets a target of a 2% rise in prices annually. Currently, inflation levels are below that threshold, with the most recent consumer price index data showing a 1.2% rise in prices overall and a 1.7% rise in core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs. “Nothing that we did today was intended to reduce accommodation,” Mr Bernanke said during the news conference. “We are committed to doing what is necessary to getting inflation back to target.” (BBC)
Hacking Trial: Princes’ voicemail messages ‘were hacked’ THE private voicemails of princes William and Harry were both accessed by the now defunct News of the World, the phone-hacking trial has heard. In one message William called Kate Middleton “babykins” and in another that he was almost shot with blanks. An unnamed male also left a message for Prince Harry impersonating his then girlfriend Chelsey Davey. It is the first time the jury has heard that the Duchess of Cambridge’s phone had been hacked. Prince William was officer training at Sandhurst in 2006 when he said he “nearly got shot” with
blank rounds during a training exercise in Aldershot. Former NoW editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are on trial with five others accused of a number of offences, which they all deny, including conspiracy to illegally intercept voicemails. In another message played to the court, Prince William said he was going “beagling”, or hunting with dogs, and invited his future wife to go with him. A message from Prince William left on the duchess’s phone was discovered at the house of Clive Goodman, then royal editor at the News of the World in 2006, prosecutor Andrew Edis told the Old Bailey. (BBC)
Interpreter Thamsanqa Jantjie is reported to have signal prawns and rocking horses during Nelson Mandela’s memorial.
Mandela memorial interpreter ‘hospitalised’ THE signer at Nelson Mandela’s memorial - accused of making up gestures - has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital, local media report. Thamsanqa Jantjie “might have had a breakdown”, his wife Siziwe is quoted as saying. Sign language experts accused him of referring to “prawns” and “rocking horses” while translating eulogies at Mr Mandela’s memorial last week. Mr Jantjie said he suffered a sudden attack of schizophrenia. He insisted he was a qualified interpreter. South Africa’s Deputy Disability Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu has said the company which had employed him had “vanished”. Mr Jantjie’s wife took him to a psychiatric hospital near Johannesburg for a check-up on Tuesday, and it was suggested that he be admitted immediately, Johannesburg’s The Star newspaper reports. “The past few days have been hard. We have been supportive because he might have had a breakdown,” Mrs Jantjie is quoted as saying. Last week, Mr Jantjie said he was
supposed to have gone for a checkup on the day of the memorial, but he postponed it. During the memorial at Johannesburg’s FNB stadium, which was broadcast live around the world, Mr Jantjie stood on the stage next to key speakers including US President Barack Obama, South African President Jacob Zuma and Mr Mandela’s grandchildren, translating their eulogies. Mr Jantjie blamed his flawed interpretation on a schizophrenic episode, saying he had seen angels coming into the stadium. The White House has downplayed fears that he was a security risk to Mr Obama. Sign language experts said he had made “funny gestures” and little more than “flapping his arms around”. The governing African National Congress (ANC) said it had used Mr Jantjie as an interpreter several times before, and “had not been aware of any of complaints regarding the quality of services, qualifications or reported illnesses” of the interpreter. Mr Mandela died on 5 December at the age of 95 and was buried on Sunday. (BBC)