WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes soared by nearly 15 percent in the first half of the year as more people lost their jobs and were unable to pay their monthly mortgage bills.
The mushrooming …
Posts Tagged ‘rise’
Call to help Colombia displaced
July 16th, 2009 |
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Amnesty International has denounced what it says is a dramatic rise in the number of people being displaced by Colombia’s armed conflict.
The human rights group notes that 380,000 people were forced to flee in 2008, a rise of nearly 25% on 2007.
Communities in areas of economic, military or strategic importance are being targeted in particular, it says.
Amnesty says Colombia has one of the world’s biggest displaced populations, put at between three and four million.
The latest report by Amnesty says that as many as 380,000 people were forced to leave their homes last year to escape violence arising from the long-running conflict between guerrillas, paramilitary groups and the armed forces.
Their figures are based on information from a local human rights group, the Centre for Human Rights and the Displaced (Codhes), which reported in April that there had been a 25% rise in the number of internally displaced.
"The dire humanitarian situation in Colombia is one of today’s most hidden tragedies"
Marcelo Pollack
Amnesty International
At the time, the government department dedicated to helping the displaced, Accion Social, said there had been an increase but also that some people were falsely claiming to have been forced from their homes in order to qualify from compensation.
According to government figures, 2.9 million people were displaced between 1997 and 2008.
Amnesty says many people have been deliberately targeted by guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and the security forces as part of strategies designed to remove whole communities from areas of military, strategic or economic importance.
The great majority of those affected are from one of three groups – indigenous people, Afro-descendents and campesinos – or farmworkers.
Many of them live in areas which are potentially economically profitable, such as land that could be used for mineral and oil exploration or agro-industrial developments.
Amnesty International’s Americas Deputy Director Marcelo Pollack said: "The dire humanitarian situation in Colombia is one of today’s most hidden tragedies, and belies claims by the Colombian government that the country has overcome its troubled past.
"Until the authorities in Colombia acknowledge the very real effects of the conflict, the human rights of millions of people have little chance of being protected."
Amnesty said much of the wealth accumulated by the paramilitaries and their political and business supporters was based on the misappropriation of land through violence or the threat of violence.
Some estimate that between four and six million hectares (10-15 million acres) of land have been stolen.
The human rights group is urging the Colombian authorities to take action stop forced displacement, improve the protection of civilians and to identify and return all stolen land and other assets to their rightful owners or their families.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Unemployment highest since 1995
July 15th, 2009 |
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The number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance increased by a relatively small 23,800 in June to 1.56 million
Unemployment shot up by a record 281,000 in the three months to May, with the jobless rate topping 10% in one region for the first time in this recession, official data shows.
The rise took the jobless total to 2.38 million, the highest level since 1995, on the broadest Labour Force Survey measure of unemployment by the Office for National Statistics.
Youth unemployment jumped to a 16-year high of 726,000 after a quarterly rise of 95,000 – the biggest on record – and the number of people out of work for longer than a year rose by 46,000 to 528,000, the highest for 11 years.
The West Midlands was the hardest hit region, with joblessness jumping to 10.3%. The north-east, Yorkshire and Humber, and London were next in line, but the south-east fared best, at 6.1% unemployment.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said the figures were “truly horrendous. It’s particularly worrying that over half a million unemployed people have been out of work for at least a year. With a new generation of school and college leavers soon starting to look for work, our unemployment crisis will get even bigger,” he warned.
Prof David Blanchflower, the Bank of England’s former labour market expert, said: “There is absolutely no sign that the recession is over. It seems to be worsening. There has been a very worrying rise in unemployment amongst the young and they are not eligible for benefits.”
He said this was part of the reason why the ONS had reported the smallest rise in unemployment measured on claimants, which rose by only 23,800 in June. Most young people are not eligible for jobseeker’s allowance.
The figures also suggested people were coming off the claimant count to go into part-time jobs because they could not find full-time employment. Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec Bank, said the claimant count figures had become unreliable, “biased down by individuals moving off the count on to government schemes such as the New Deal”.
Jaguar LandRover announced it will stop producing its X-Type at the Halewood plant on Merseyside, with the loss of up to 300 jobs. David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, predicted unemployment would peak at about 3.2 million next year.
The figures also showed the number of people in work fell by 269,000 in the latest quarter to 29 million, after a record fall of 0.9% in the employment rate to 72.9%. More than 300,000 people were made redundant in the three months to May, the second highest figure on record, and a rise of 31,000 on the previous quarter. Vacancies fell to a record 429,000 in the three months to June, down by 35,000 from the previous quarter.
Manufacturing jobs continued to fall, down 201,000 over the past year to a low of 2.6 million. Average earnings, excluding bonus payments, increased by 2.6% in the year to May, the lowest figure since comparable records began in 2001, confounding last year’s Bank of England prediction that pay deals would soar this year.
The Centre for Cities thinktank is releasing a report today suggesting Swansea, Newcastle and Ipswich could suffer badly when public sector job cuts begin after 2011. It predicts that in the three years after that, 290,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Christopher Hayes: New Pecora Commission Will Give Rise To Public Anger…Which Is Why Elites Fear It
July 13th, 2009 |
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Are suppositions about the complexity of the financial crisis just another way of keeping the real story from public scrutiny? Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Christopher Hayes…
Mps Tackle Worries Over Food Price Rise
November 12th, 2007 |
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Govt doing its best to keep inflation low, assures minister
Nazry Bahrawi
nazry@mediacorp.com.sg
WITH groceries costing more by the day and consumers still getting used to
the four-month-old 2-per- cent hike in GST, it was inevitable that
inflation – and the Government’s handling of it – became one of the
talking points in Parliament yesterday.
Among the questions raised by several MPs: Is the Government monitoring
the increases in prices of food items such as flour and chicken? Are such
increases a cause of concern? What will be the impact of rising prices on
businesses? Should the Singapore dollar be allowed to appreciate further?
Madam Halimah Yaacob (Jurong GRC), wondered whether the Consumer Price
Index (CPI ) – which rose 2.7 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter
compared to 1 per cent in the second quarter and 0.5 per cent in the first
quarter – was an accurate reflection of inflationary trends in Singapore.
The CPI tracks the prices of a basket of goods and services, such as
housing, healthcare and transport, consumed by an average household.
Mr Inderjit Singh (Ang Mo Kio GRC) said he was concerned that higher
inflation would affect Singapore’s competitiveness in attracting foreign
investors. Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim of the opposition Workers’
Party, wanted to know how Singapore is diversifying its food sources in
order to stabilise prices.
In his response, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said that the
Government would try its best to keep inflation low even as he noted that
the “current uptick in inflation is a global phenomenon”.
For example, Mr Lim said, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had
managed to strengthen the value of the Singapore dollar by maintaining an
exchange rate policy since April last year that allows the currency to
“appreciate gradually and modestly” rather than pegging it to the US
dollar. The latter move would have resulted in Singaporeans experiencing
higher inflation.
In reference to Mdm Halimah’s query about whether the CPI was an accurate
reflection of the state of inflation here, Mr Lim noted that the index had
been low for the first two quarters of this year. The CPI is expected to
rise slightly above 2.7 per cent in the fourth quarter.
Mr Lim attributed the lower CPI in the first two quarters of the year to
the “low transport CPI” because of some changes to the transport policies
as well as the low oil prices back then.
However, oil prices are now on the rise and the impact of the GST hike in
July will continue “to show up in higher CPI inflation figures” for 12
months until June next year.
Mr Lim added: “Unlike food import prices, the GST increase has had only a
limited impact on basic food prices as the major supermarket chains have
been absorbing the GST increase for basic food items.”
Mr Lim expects the CPI to hover around 3 per cent in the later part of
2008, higher than the last few years. The Government expects inflation to
peak at 4 to 5 per cent in the first half of next year.
On the issue of food diversification, Mr Lim said while Singapore can
explore the possibility of importing vegetables from Thailand and China,
there is only so much that the Government can do to mitigate a price hike
in consumer goods.
For example, if there is a worldwide increase in the prices of cornfeed,
than chicken prices will go up even if Singapore were to diversify its
sources of frozen chicken from countries such as Australia, the United
States and Brazil.
Allaying Mr Singh’s concern over the impact of rising prices on
businesses, Mr Lim said that Singapore is still in a “good position” to
attract foreign investments because inflation here is still comparatively
lower than other countries.
Singapore is competitive also because while wages had increased, so too
had our productivity, said Mr Lim.
“I don’t think we should begrudge our workers having a fair share of wage
increase in the last two years if we look at the last broader 5 to 7 year
time frame,” he said, explaining that wages was slow to climb during the
longer term period.
The Rise And Rise Of Robinho
November 12th, 2007 |
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After two seasons at Real, Brazil striker is finally showing he is
capable of great things
MADRID – He signed for Real Madrid in the summer of 2005 amid much
fanfare, with the likes of Pele himself hailing the youngster as Brazil’s
next great thing.
The last couple of seasons have been a steep learning curve for Robinho as
he only displayed occasional glimpses of his form and some Real fans began
to question the wisdom of the signing.
But after another five-star performance for the Spanish champions on
Sunday (yesterday morning, Singapore time), the 23-year-old is finally
beginning to realise his enormous potential.
The Brazilian international put on a mesmerising display, including two
goals, as Real downed Real Mallorca 4-3 to stay top of La Liga.
The youngster has already chalked up a double in one previous league clash
this season and Real coach Bernd Schuster acknowledged: “Robinho is in
great form at the moment and he has maintained a very high level for
several matches now. That is what we expect of him.
“At Real Madrid we need players such as Robinho, Raul, Ruud (van
Nistelrooy) and (Wesley) Sneijder to create problems for the opposition.”
Dutch international van Nistelrooy scored the 73rd minute winner for Real
in a see-saw game that underlined Real’s attacking prowess and their
defensive frailties.
Real’s nearest challengers are Villarreal, just a point adrift after their
sensational 3-2 win over 10-man Sevilla.
Sevilla had beaten Real last weekend and Mallorca looked set to follow in
their footsteps.
Robinho had headed the hosts ahead on 12 minutes but Fernando Varela
equalised two minutes later.
The Brazilian then grabbed his fourth goal of the season on 16 minutes,
dispatching with aplomb after a pass from Raul.
But Real were at sixes and sevens in defence and Varela matched Robinho by
scoring his second of the match with a ferocious 36th minute equaliser.
Guiza then put Mallorca ahead, but Real had too much for the islanders,
with Raul and van Nistelrooy gobbling up chances set up by Robinho to send
the locals into a frenzy.
Said the youngster, after the game: “When I see Ronaldinho once we all
join up for the Brazil games, I’m going to remind him it is Real Madrid
that are leaders.
“I’m very happy with the way I’m playing.
“I’m here to make my dreams come true – to win trophies with Real Madrid.
“We are in great form and I am very happy with the victory because the
three points were very important. We are gradually doing things better and
it means we can be even better.” – Agencies