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President Donald Trump doubled down on his tough talk on trade with a pair of executive orders Friday, which he says are designed to level the playing field and reduce the $500 billion US trade deficit, more than half of which is with China. As Mil Arcega reports, the issue of unfair trade is likely to come up when the U.S. president meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week.
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Hotels offer congee and other Chinese staples for room service. Casinos train staff members on Chinese etiquette. Restaurants, tourist sights and shopping malls translate signs, menus and information booklets into Mandarin.
The American hospitality industry is stepping up efforts to make Chinese visitors feel more welcome, since they are projected to soon surpass travelers from the United Kingdom and Japan as the single largest overseas demographic.
And it’s not just the typical tourist hubs of New York and Los Angeles, where such efforts have long been commonplace. Smaller cities like Boston, Las Vegas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., are increasingly getting into the act, industry officials say.
“Americans traditionally lag behind what other international designations do for different cultures,” said Elliott Ferguson, CEO of Destination DC, the city’s convention and tourism organization, which last year launched “Welcome China,” a certification program for local businesses. “We just kind of assume that one size fits all. Quite frankly, that’s just not welcoming.”
Local tourism associations in those and other cities have recently launched campaigns aimed at getting their member hotels, restaurants and tourism companies to better incorporate Chinese language and customs into their offerings. They’re also embarking on tourism-focused sales missions to China and opening satellite offices in Chinese cities to strengthen ties and sell their city to trendsetters.
Sheraton Boston offers creature comforts
Some companies have already embraced the message.
The Sheraton Boston in the Back Bay neighborhood started offering in 2013 simple creature comforts many Chinese travelers expect, including slippers, robes, instant noodles, an electric kettle and green tea, and have since taken other steps to cater to Chinese guests, said Angela Vento, the hotel’s general manager.
The Four Seasons in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood makes similar gestures, as well as offering Chinese-language television and newspapers. It’s also working on offering more traditional Chinese dishes on its room service and restaurant menus, said Liliana Baldassari, a hotel spokeswoman.
In Las Vegas, Caesars Entertainment last year started offering guests at some of its affiliated resorts the option to book and pay for hotel rooms using WeChat, China’s most popular social media app.
“It’s made a really strong statement to the Chinese that these people really welcome us and understand us,” said Bruce Bommarito, the company’s vice president for international marketing, noting the Roman-themed casino has rolled out other China-focused initiatives in recent years, including training programs for staff on basic cultural etiquette for serving Chinese guests.
Those and other small touches are a step in the right direction, but more companies need to make an effort to recognize the growing importance of the Chinese market, said Justin Minggan Wei, a 27-year-old from Beijing who came to Boston in 2008 for college, an experience that inspired him to launch a consulting company helping local restaurants and businesses better serve Chinese customers.
Chicago Hilton reaches out
Zeng Wen, a 24-year-old who works part-time as a tour guide for Chinese-speakers in Chicago, said she has noticed recent efforts to reach out to Chinese tourists, like the Hilton hotel chain’s “Hilton Huanying” program, which derives its name from the Chinese words for “welcome.”
But Zhe Zhang, a 36-year-old from Guangzhou who visited Los Angeles this year, said he didn’t see any obvious outreach to Chinese visitors, outside of Chinese-run establishments. The most intimidating part, he said, was ordering food with his basic grasp of English.
“If possible, restaurants could provide a simple Chinese menu or pictured menu,” Zhang suggested.
Cities can’t afford to be caught flat-footed as China’s growing middle class — almost nonexistent two decades ago — flexes its spending power, industry experts say.
Chinese visitors already spend more in the U.S. than other international visitors, at roughly $7,200 per person, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry trade group. Travelers from the country are expected to more than double from about 2.6 million visitors in 2015 to nearly 6 million by 2021, the association said.
More direct flights from China to a wider range of U.S. cities in recent years is partly fueling the boom.
10-year visa a plus
Creation of a 10-year visa between the U.S. and China in 2014 has also made it easier for Chinese to travel more frequently to the U.S. That has allowed them to venture beyond must-see destinations like New York and Los Angeles to smaller and mid-size destinations and even the national parks, said Scott Johnson, a New York consultant working with Boston and other cities to grow their international presence.
The growing ranks of affluent Chinese are also staying longer and visiting more locations in the U.S. as they plan for their children’s college education or seek real estate and other investment opportunities.
U.S. tourism officials are working to assure partners in China that they remain welcoming even as the administration of Republican President Donald Trump tightens international travel policies and promises fundamental changes in the U.S.-China trade relationship, said Tom Norwalk, CEO of Visit Seattle, the city’s tourism organization.
“Security and travel don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” he said. “We’d hate to see us roll back the clock. We’ve been pretty loud and clear about that.”
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Friday marked the end of the week, the month and the first fiscal quarter of 2017.
The first-quarter statistics were pretty impressive with the NASDAQ Composite delivering the best return of the three main indices of nearly 10 percent as the index broke through another record high on Friday, led by heavyweights like Apple (AAPL) and Amazon.com (AMZN).
“The trends that are driving earnings growth in that sector —- cloud computing, internet of things, mobile and tablet adoption, increasing consumption of video, et cetera —- are all intact, and an improving global economy should allow that to continue,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Cornerstone Financial Partners.
The S&P 500 closed the quarter higher by its best gain since the fourth quarter of 2015. The Dow Jones industrial average added nearly 5.5 percent, which was its sixth straight positive quarter and the longest winning streak since the fourth quarter of 2006, although March showed the first monthly loss since October.
Trading week ahead
The all-important Employment Situation Report for March will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, April 7. The federal government’s employment data give the most comprehensive report of how many people are looking for jobs, how many have them, what they’re getting paid and how many hours they are working. These numbers provide the best way to gauge the current state, as well as the future direction, of the economy.
Other key macro events include release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes from March 14-15 on Wednesday and retail same-store sales throughout the morning on Thursday. While investors do not expect a change in the minutes from the last FOMC meeting, the release could move the markets as traders pick apart each word, looking for clues to monetary policy, when the next rate hike may occur and the amount of hikes anticipated for 2017.
Second-quarter outlook
Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network, believes the second quarter will get off to a good start.
“Both consumer and business confidence continue to rise, which should provide a tailwind for faster growth,” McMillan said in a research note. “Job creation remains very strong, and wage growth also continues to rise. Around the world, both Europe and Asia are seeing faster growth, marking the first synchronized global expansion since the crisis.”
McMillan believes that the second quarter isn’t likely to repeat the first, but strong economic fundamentals, along with rising corporate earnings, could continue to push markets higher. Rising confidence will support valuation levels and also offers a real possibility of upside surprises in the hard economic data, which could translate into even better than expected earnings growth.
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Austria’s top diplomat on Friday called on both sides of the conflict in Azerbaijan’s autonomous breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh to renew the political settlement process.
Marking the first anniversary of deadly clashes in the Azeri region, which is populated mostly by ethnic Armenians, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), emphasized his hope for a fresh start in the largely stalled peace negotiations.
“Clashes and serious violations of the cease-fire on the Line of Contact, resulting in casualties, were of particular concern to us throughout the past year,” Kurz said in a public statement. “It is now high time for a focus on pragmatic and practical steps for confidence-building as well as a resumption of substantive negotiations.”
The United States, Russia and France, which co-chair OSCE’s Minsk Group for conflict mediation, used diplomacy to halt the violence between Armenian-backed separatists and Azeri forces, which was the deadliest incident since a 1994 cease-fire established the current territorial division. Although they have been unable to secure a binding peace resolution, former U.S. Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh said, the renewed push by the OSCE presents a rare opportunity for U.S. and Russian coordination.
“President [Donald] Trump had made clear during his campaign, and since then, that he would like to find a way to have more positive relations with Russia. This might be one of those areas where that is more easily tackled,” said Cavanaugh, who once co-chaired the Minsk Group as a special negotiator alongside Russian and French diplomats.
Opportunity to surprise
“For two decades we’ve been working together as co-chairs on this, and I can tell you as a former co-chair — and I have talked with my successors — that the cooperation would surprise people,” he said.
Unlike the Syrian and Ukrainian conflicts, Nagorno-Karabakh is place where U.S. and Russian interests converge. Considering the constant cease-fire violations since the 2016 clashes left more than 100 people dead, Nagorno-Karabakh, he said, cannot be considered a frozen conflict, but rather “a simmering one, which needs a lot of attention and has a lot of danger.”
The only solution that can prevent further violence is close coordination between U.S. and Russian diplomats, whose nations would both benefit from a sustained peace in the region.
But that can only happen, Cavanaugh said, if both Azeri and Armenian-aligned factions show Washington and Moscow that they are ready to re-engage the peace process.
“The sides need to send clear signals to Moscow, to Washington, to Paris, that they are prepared now really to work on peace again.”
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Armenian service.
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Pressure is growing on the Hungarian government to withdraw a draft bill on higher education that could lead to the closure of the Central European University in Budapest, which was founded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
The U.S. State Department as well as dozens of academics in Hungary and abroad Friday called on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government to ensure CEU’s independence and operations.
Orban said Friday on state radio that the CEU was “cheating” because it did not have a campus in its country of origin and because it issued diplomas recognized both in Hungary and the United States, giving it an undue advantage over local institutions. The CEU is accredited in New York state but does not have a U.S. campus.
“This is not fair to Hungarian universities,” Orban said. “There is competition among universities and it is inexplicable why we should put our own universities at a disadvantage … while securing an unfair advantage for the foreign university.”
Nobel Prize winners
Fourteen winners of the Nobel Prize in economics were among about 150 academics from U.S. and European universities who advocated for the CEU in an open letter addressed to education officials and Reka Szemerkenyi, Hungary’s ambassador in Washington.
“It would be a sad outcome for the training of students from the region, for academic research in Hungary, and for our own cooperation with Hungarian academics, if the proposed legislation came into force,” the academics said.
Orban, however, conditioned CEU’s survival to a bilateral Hungary-U.S. agreement on the university. He did not hide his disdain for the Hungarian-born Soros’ policies supporting the university and numerous non-governmental organizations that Orban considers “foreign agents” working against Hungarian interests.
University vows to stay open
CEU rector Michael Ignatieff has vowed to keep the university open despite the draft bill, scheduled to be debated by lawmakers next week. The bill sets new conditions on foreign universities operating in Hungary and was seen as directly targeting the CEU.
Among the 28 foreign universities in Hungary, only CEU would fail to meet a requirement to also have a campus in its home country.
“Contrary to the prime minister’s statement, there is no current Hungarian law that requires universities to have operations in their home countries in order to award degrees in Hungary,” the CEU said. “We have been lawful partners in Hungarian higher education for 25 years and any statement to the contrary is false.”
The CEU also said it was notified Friday by Hungary’s education authority that its accreditation in New York state met the conditions for operating in Hungary.
US speaks out
The U.S. State Department also took exception to the proposed legislation, saying it would impose “new, targeted, and onerous regulatory requirements on foreign universities.”
“If adopted, these changes would negatively affect or even lead to the closure” of the CEU, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “We urge the government of Hungary to avoid taking any legislative action that would compromise CEU’s operations or independence.”
Hungarian university organizations also expressed their support for the CEU.
“CEU is a very significant scholarly center,” said Laszlo Lovasz, president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. “It is good that it operates in Budapest.”
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«Микола Дульський, який переховується на території Росії, – відомий агент впливу російських спецслужб, який за гроші веде активну антиукраїнську діяльність з 2015 року»
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Європейська мовна спілка (EBU) та Національна суспільна телекомпанія України оприлюднили порядок виступів учасників першого та другого півфіналів Євробачення-2017, у якому також є Росія. Відповідна інформація розміщена на сайті пісенного конкурсу.
Згідно з розкладом, представниця Росії виступатиме 11 травня під номером 3.
Півфінали відбудуться 9 та 11 травня.
Раніше 31 березня з’явилася інформація, що Україну можуть позбавити права у майбутньому приймати Євробачення через заборону СБУ на в’їзд у країну російській співачці Юлії Самойловій. Про це мовиться у листі голови EBU Інгрід Дельтенре прем’єр-міністру Володимиру Гройсману, розміщеному на сайті Oikotimes.
У Європейській мовній спілці 31 березня підтвердили Deutsche Welle справжність цього листа.
Українська сторона наразі не коментувала цієї інформації.
12 березня Росія визначила свого представника на «Євробаченні» – Юлію Самойлову, яка виступила в окупованому Криму 27 червня 2015 року, таким чином порушивши постанову Кабінету міністрів України № 367 від 4 червня 2015 року, за якою іноземці повинні мати спеціальний дозвіл для відвідин Криму і в’їжджати на територію півострова через встановлені пункти пропуску.
22 березня СБУ заборонила учасниці від Росії Юлії Самойловій в’їзд до України на три роки.
У Європейській мовній спілці, яка є співорганізатором щорічних конкурсів популярних пісень «Євробачення», заявили 23 березня , що росіянка Юлія Самойлова могла б виступити на конкурсі через супутниковий зв’язок із Росії у другому півфіналі, а в разі проходження до фіналу – і в фіналі.
У відповідь віце-прем’єр В’ячеслав Кириленко зазначив, що це суперечить українському законодавству, і звинуватив EBU у політизації конкурсу.
Кілька країн звернулися до EBU з критикою рішення української влади, заявивши, що розглядають можливість бойкотувати конкурс.
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Генеральний прокурор України Юрій Луценко заявляє, що не збирається залишати посаду через «серйозні справи», які ще має завершити.
«Я точно не збираюсь залишати цю посаду, але, безумовно, не буду триматися за неї…У мене багато планів. Я зараз не маю ніяких інших політичних амбіцій… уявити себе кандидатом на політичну посаду без завершення серйозних справ у прокуратурі я не можу», – заявив генпрокурор 31 березня в Києві, відповідаючи на запитання про його ставлення до подання екс-генпрокурором Віктором Шокіним позову до суду про відновлення його на посаді.
Луценко зазначив, що має намір завершити, зокрема, справу колишнього президента Віктора Януковича, а також справи про притягнення до відповідальності за корупцію низки представників нинішньої влади.
Щодо намірів Шокіна Луценко заявив: «Ми живемо у вільній країні. Тому кожна людина, особливо та, яка має багато часу на пенсії, може звертатися до суду».
Раніше сього місяця стало відомо, що звільнений минулого року з посади генпрокурора Віктор Шокін просить Вищий адміністративний суд визнати незаконними й скасувати рішення щодо його звільнення.
Згідно з розкладом на сайті ВАСУ, відповідна справа буде розглядатися о 15:30 10 квітня. Крім того, Шокін вимагає поновлення на посаді генпрокурора.
Після цього деякі політики допустили можливість призначення Юрія Луценка на посаду голови уряду.
52-річний Луценко обіймає посаду генерального прокурора із травня 2016 року.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meeting with his NATO allies’ counterparts, said Friday in Brussels that they must increase their countries’ defense budgets.
The top U.S. diplomat told the foreign ministers the alliance must have “all of the resources, financial and otherwise, that are necessary for NATO to fulfill its mission” in places like Iraq and Syria.
Earlier Friday, Tillerson said he also wanted to discuss “Russia’s aggression in Ukraine” with the NATO allies.
Upon arrival in Brussels, the top U.S. diplomat said he sees three important areas to discuss: NATO’s resources for its mission, the organization’s fight against terrorism, including Islamic State, and NATO’s posture in Europe, “most particularly Eastern Europe in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere.”
The comments concerning Moscow are some of the strongest the Trump administration has made since coming to power in January.
Tillerson’s visit to Brussels comes one day after meeting with top Turkish officials in Ankara.
Ankara talks
He hailed Turkey as a trusted ally after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other leaders Thursday.
Tillerson underlined the importance of Turkey in the battle against Islamic State.
But the two NATO allies remain at loggerheads over Washington’s support for the Syrian Kurdish group the PYD and its militia, the YPG, in fighting Islamic State militants. Ankara accuses the PYD of being a terrorist organization affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish State.
In a joint news conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed Turkey’s opposition to support of the PYD, but did not directly criticize the Trump administration.
Tillerson acknowledged no breakthrough on the dispute, saying more discussions are needed. “We are exploring a number of options and alternatives,” but reiterated Washington’s support of Ankara in fighting the PKK.
With Washington stepping up its military support of the YPG before the operation to liberate Raqqa, the self-declared capital of Islamic State, Ankara increasingly appears resigned to the fact that its call for its military forces to replace the Syrian Kurdish groups has been rejected. But a presidential source ruled out any retaliatory measures against the United States, stressing it did not want the issue to undermine future cooperation.
The European Union softened its public stance on Britain’s exit from the bloc Friday, with Council President Donald Tusk signaling some flexibility on allowing talks on a new relationship before the divorce proceedings are complete.
Draft guidelines obtained by the Associated Press say that the EU and Britain must first “settle the disentanglement” of Britain from the bloc but added that “an overall understanding on the framework for the future relationship could be identified during the second phase of the negotiations under Article 50.”
The guidelines also say it is a priority to settle questions about British and other European citizens living in each other’s countries, and call for “flexible and imaginative solutions” for the issue of the U.K.’s land border with Ireland.
Talks will be difficult
EU leaders warned after a meeting Friday that the two years of talks triggered this week to negotiate Britain’s exit will be difficult, but insisted they don’t want all-out economic or diplomatic conflict. Tusk is presenting the EU’s draft negotiating guidelines to leaders of the remaining 27 member states Friday.
Tusk said the EU will not punish Britain in the talks, saying that Brexit itself is “punitive enough.” The head of the rotating EU presidency, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, insisted the negotiations “will not be a war.”
Tusk said there would not be parallel discussions about Britain’s exit and its future relationship with the EU, but said that the negotiations could move onto a second phase if there is “sufficient progress” in the exit talks.
He didn’t define what kind of progress that would have to be, but said that the 27 remaining EU members would have to agree before moving on.
Threat ruled out
Tusk ruled out the suggestion that there was an inherent threat in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s departure letter Wednesday, which some felt hinted that Britain was threatening to end security cooperation with continental Europe unless it gets a good Brexit deal.
British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson also insisted Friday that Britain’s commitment to European defense and security is “unconditional” and “not some bargaining chip in any negotiations’’ over Brexit.
Johnson, speaking in Brussels upon arrival for a NATO meeting, said he has had good feedback from partners since Wednesday’s British formal announcement of its departure from the EU, despite worries on both sides of the Channel about Brexit.
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Rain-fed wildflowers have been sprouting from California’s desert sands after lying dormant for years — producing a spectacular display that has drawn record crowds and traffic jams to tiny towns like Borrego Springs.
An estimated 150,000 people in the past month have converged on this town of about 3,500, roughly 85 miles (135 kilometers) northeast of San Diego, for the so-called super bloom.
Wildflowers are springing up in different landscapes across the state and the western United States thanks to a wet winter. In the Antelope Valley, an arid plateau northeast of Los Angeles, blazing orange poppies are lighting up the ground.
What is a super bloom?
But a “super bloom” is a term for when a mass amount of desert plants bloom at one time. In California, that happens about once in a decade in a given area. It has been occurring less frequently with the drought. Last year, the right amount of rainfall and warm temperatures produced carpets of flowers in Death Valley.
So far this year, the natural show has been concentrated in the 640,000-acre (1,000-square-mile) Anza Borrego State Park that abuts Borrego Springs.
It is expected to roll along through May, with different species blooming at different elevations and in different areas of the park. Anza Borrego is California’s largest state park with hundreds of species of plants, including desert lilies, blazing stars and the flaming tall, spiny Ocotillo.
‘Flowergeddon’
Deputies were brought in to handle the traffic jams as Borrego Springs saw its population triple in a single day.
On one particularly packed weekend in mid-March, motorists were stuck in traffic for five hours, restaurants ran out of food, and some visitors relieved themselves in the fields. Officials have since set up an army of Port-A-Pottys, and eateries have stocked up. The craze has been dubbed “Flowergeddon.”
Locals call those who view the tiny wildflowers from their cars “flower peepers.” Thousands of others have left their vehicles to traipse across the desert and analyze the array of delicate yellow, orange, purple and magenta blooms up close in the park. Many carting cameras have taken care to step around the plants.
Tour groups from as far as Japan and Hong Kong have flown in to catch the display before it fades away with the rising temperatures.
Rare sightings tracked
Wildflower enthusiasts worldwide track the blooms online and arrive for rare sightings like this year’s Bigelow’s Monkey flower, some of which have grown to 8 inches (203 millimeters) in height. The National Park Service has even pitched in with a 24-hour wildflower hotline to find the best spots at the state park.
“We’ve seen everything from people in normal hiking attire to people in designer flip-flops to women in sundresses and strappy heels hike out there to get their picture. When I saw that, I thought, ‘Oh no. Please don’t go out there with those shoes on,’” laughed Linda Haddock, head of the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce.
On a recent day, a young woman sat among knee-high desert sunflowers and shot selfies against the backdrop of yellow blooms that looked almost neon in contrast to the brown landscape. A mother jumped in the air as her daughter snapped her photo among yellow brittlebushes.
Blooms draw insects, birds
The blooms are attracting hungry sphinx moth caterpillars that munch through acres. The caterpillars in turn are attracting droves of Swainson hawks on their annual 6,000-mile (9,656-kilometer) migration from Argentina.
“It’s an amazing burst in the cycle of life in the desert that has come because of a freakish event like a super bloom,” Haddock said. “It’s exciting. This is going to be so huge for our economy.”
Desert super blooms always draw crowds, but lifetime residents said they’ve never seen the natural wonder attract tens of thousands like this time. The park is about a two-hour drive from San Diego and three hours from Los Angeles.
A lot of rain, a lot of blooms
This year’s display has been especially stunning, experts say. The region received 6½ inches (165 millimeters) of rain from December to February, followed by almost two weeks of 90-degree temperatures, setting the conditions for the super bloom. Five years of drought made the seeds ready to pop.
Humans also helped. Park staff, volunteers and female prisoners have been removing the Saharan Mustard plant, an invasive species believed brought to California in the 1920s with another plant, the date palm. Saharan Mustard stole the thunder of another super bloom six years ago, said Jim Dice, research manager at the Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center.
“It completely took over the usual wildflower fields and starved out the wildflowers so what we had were giant fields of ugly mustard plant,” Dice said. “That galvanized the community, which depends on tourism largely brought in during the good wildflower years.”
Lia Wathen, a 35-year-old investigator in San Diego, took a Monday off from work so she wouldn’t miss the desert flowers.
“Any single color that you can think of, you’re going to find it right here,” said Wathen, walking with her Maltese dogs, Romeo and Roxy, before stopping to examine a magenta bloom on a spikey Cholla cactus.
Sandra Reel and her husband drove hundreds of miles out of their way when they heard about the super bloom.
“It is absolutely phenomenal to see this many blooming desert plants all at the same time,” she said. “I think it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
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Прем’єр-міністр України Володимир Гройсман задекларував за 2016 рік 15 мільйонів гривень, повідомив Урядовий портал пізно ввечері 30 березня.
Згідно з електронною декларацією, зарплата прем’єра у 2016 році склала 281 тисячу гривень. Його дохід включає також проценти по депозитах, розміщених в українських банках, у розмірі 154 тисячі гривень.
«Переважна частина доходу прем’єр-міністра України за 2016 рік отримана внаслідок відчуження належного йому автомобіля та земельної ділянки, сформованої в результаті поділу ділянки, раніше вказаної в його електронній декларації за 2015 рік. Від зазначених операцій очільником уряду отримано 11 мільйонів 130 тисяч гривень. Додатково від здачі в оренду належних Гройсману об’єктів нерухомого майна, які є у його власності вже багато років, надійшло 4,2 мільйона гривень», – повідомили в Кабміні.
З отриманих доходів голова уряду сплатив у минулому році понад 1,5 мільйона гривень податків.
Доходи дружини прем’єр-міністра за 2016 рік склали 1,625 мільйона гривень, з яких 1,4 мільйона гривень – доходи від ведення Оленою Гройсман підприємницької діяльності.
«У 2016 році подружжям Гройсмана не купувалися об’єкти нерухомого майна, рухоме майно та нематеріальні активи, декларування яких є обов’язковим за законодавством України», – зазначається в повідомленні.
Декларацію прем’єр-міністра на сайті Єдиного реєстру подивитися на даний момент неможливо через технічні роботи на ресурсі. «На порталі проводяться технічні роботи у зв’язку з необхідністю розвантажити Реєстр для подання суб’єктами декларування електронних декларацій. Просимо вибачення за тимчасові незручності», – такий напис містить головна сторінка сайту.
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European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has criticized those, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who praise Britain’s secession from the European Union (EU), and champion similar movements in other member nations. Leaders of the European People’s Party met on Malta Thursday, a day after Britain triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, officially starting the process known as Brexit. Zlatica Hoke has more.
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Hundreds of ships are switching off their tracking devices and taking unexplained routes, raising concern the trafficking of arms, migrants and drugs is going undetected.
Ninety percent of the world’s trade is carried by sea. Every vessel has an identification number administered by the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization or IMO. But crews are able to change the digital identity of their ship, making it possible to conceal previous journeys.
The Israeli firm Windward has developed software to track the changes. Its CEO, Ami Daniel, showed VOA several examples of suspicious shipping activity, including one vessel that changed its entire identity in the middle of a voyage from a Chinese port to North Korea.
“It’s intentionally changing all of identification numbers. Also its name, and its size, and its flag and its owner. Everything that’s recognizable in its digital footprint. This is obviously someone who is trying to circumvent sanctions [on North Korea],” says Daniel.
Transfers at sea
In a joint investigation with the Times of London newspaper, Windward showed that in January and February more than 1,000 cargo transfers took place at sea. Security experts fear traffickers are transporting drugs, weapons, and even people.
Suspicious activity can be highlighted by comparing a vessel’s journey with all its previous voyages. In mid-January a Cyprus-flagged ship designed to carry fish deviated from its usual route between West Africa and northern Europe to visit Ukraine, deactivating its tracking system on several occasions.
“It’s leaving Ukraine, transiting all through the Bosphorus Straits into Europe, then drifting off Malta,” explains Daniel, as the Windward system plots the route of the reefer [refrigerated] vessel on the screen. “On the way it turns off transmission a few times … then it comes into this place east of Gibraltar. This area is known for ship-to-ship transfers and smuggling, because of the proximity to North Africa.”
Under global regulations all vessels must report their last port of call when arriving in a new port.
“But as you can understand, when it does ship-to-ship transfers here, it doesn’t actually call into any port, right, because it’s the middle of the ocean. So it’s finding a way to bypass what it already has to report to the authorities,” Daniel said.
Finally the vessel sails to a remote Scottish island called Islay, but again it anchors around 400 meters off a tiny deserted bay. The specific purpose of this voyage hasn’t yet been identified.
Lack of political will
Daniel shows another example of a vessel leaving the Libyan port of Tobruk before drifting just off the Greek island of Crete, raising suspicions that it is involved in people smuggling.
But he says using information like this to investigate suspicious shipping activities requires political will as well as technological advances.
“Regulation, coordination, legislation. And then proof in the court of law. And not all of this necessarily exists. The high seas, which means 200 nautical miles onwards by definition, are not regulated right now. The U.N. is still working on it.”
Meanwhile the scale of smuggling around the United States’ coastline was underlined this month, as the Coast Guard intercepted 660 kilos of cocaine off the coast of Florida, with a street value of an estimated $420 million.
Hundreds of ships are switching off their tracking devices and taking unexplained routes, raising concern that the trafficking of arms, migrants and drugs is going undetected. New technology enables authorities to follow the routes of suspect vessels, but security experts say taking on the smugglers will require greater coordination. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Заступник генпрокурора України Євген Єнін повідомляє, що екс-керівнику Державного агентства з питань залучення інвестиції часів президентства Віктора Януковича Владиславу Каськову відмовили у статусі політичного біженця.
«Влада Панами відмовила Каськову у статусі політичного біженця.
Це ще не фінал, але значний крок вперед», – написав Єнін у Facebook.
8 вересня стало відомо про затримання Каськова в Панамі.
Владислав Каськів обіймав посаду голови Держагентства з інвестицій та управління національними проектами України у 2010–2014 роках.
Наприкінці березня 2016 року його оголосили в розшук. За даними ГПУ, Каськів розшукується за злочини, передбачені статтями Кримінального кодексу України «заволодіння чужим майном шляхом зловживання службовою особою своїм службовим становищем, вчинене за попередньою змовою групою осіб, в особливо великих розмірах» і «службове підроблення, що спричинило тяжкі наслідки».
Як заявляв міністр внутрішніх справ Арсен Аваков, Каськів вивів із України 255 мільйонів гривень.
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Постраждалим від нападу невідомих чиновником, якого напередодні побили у Києві, є заступник директора державного підприємства «Укрспирт» Ігор Ільчишин, повідомляє прес-служба підприємства.
«Стосовно нападу невідомими на Ігоря Ільчишина, що стався ввечері 29 березня 2017 року, повідомляємо наступне: Ігор Ільчишин є заступником директора ДП «Укрспирт», а також головою комісії з ліквідації Державного концерну спиртової та лікеро-горілчаної промисловості (концерн «Укрспирт»)», – мовиться у повідомленні прес-служби «Укрспирту», оприлюдненому 30 березня.
«Наразі триває слідство. Усі питання стосовно мотиву нападників, можливих замовників, а також причин нападу перебувають у компетенції правоохоронних органів. Відомості про подію внесли до Єдиного реєстру досудових розслідувань за ч. 4 ст. 296 (хуліганство) Кримінального кодексу України», – додали у прес-службі.
Раніше повідомлялося, що ввечері 29 березня у Дніпровському районі Києва невідомі напали на заступника директора держпідприємства, побили його і вистрілили у нього гумовими кулями. Ім’я постраждалого не називали.
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Qatar Airways is offering loaner laptops to its business class passengers in the wake of a U.S. ban on them on flights from several countries.
“As an award-winning and global airline we truly appreciate the importance of being able to work on board our aircraft and that is why I have insisted on offering only the best possible solution for our customers,” said Akbar Al Baker, the company’s CEO. “By providing this laptop loan service we can ensure that our passengers on flights to the US can continue to work whilst on-board. This unique ability to offer ‘business as usual’, above and beyond the competition, is yet another example of Qatar Airways justification for being the ‘World’s Best Business Class.’”
A news statement from the airline did not say what kind of computers the loaners will be, nor what software will be available. Photos posted with the statement show a MacBook Pro.
The airline says customers will be able to bring their own USB sticks so they can have access to documents they may be working on.
In a nod to economy passengers, the airline says it will offer one hour of free wi-fi as well as full wi-fi access for the entire flight for $5.
The ban on devices, which as announced earlier this month, includes tablets, e-readers, portable DVD players or any electronic device bigger than a smartphone.
The policy only covers nonstop flights to the U.S. from 10 airports in North Africa and the Middle East. Some of the airports include busy hubs like Istanbul, Turkey, and Dubai in the UAE.
Flights to these destinations from the U.S. are not subject to the ban.
Other airlines affected by the ban are taking similar steps. Emirates is letting passengers use laptops up to the moment they board, and Etihad is offering free wi-fi and iPads to its premium customers.
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U.S. economic growth was a little stronger that first thought in the last few months of 2016.
Thursday’s updated report from the Commerce Department says the economy grew at a 2.1 percent annual rate in October, November and December. Growth was helped by stronger consumer spending.
PNC Bank economist Gus Faucher says the world’s largest economy is in “solid shape” and expects growth will be stronger this year than in 2016.
During the campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump promised to boost economic growth to four percent or better by cutting taxes and regulations, and boosting investment in roads and bridges. Many private economists doubt this growth rate can be achieved. Some argue that Trump’s stimulus efforts cannot overcome the economic drag from slow productivity growth and an aging workforce that is losing members to retirement.
A separate report from the Labor Department said new unemployment claims declined by 3,000.
The data show that the total number of applications for unemployment (258,000) is still low enough to show a healthy labor market. The number of jobless claims has been below 300,000 for more than two years, the longest stretch since 1970 when the labor force was smaller.
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A top police official says a recent hacking attack on the German Parliament may have led to a “significant drain of data” which may be used to try influence the outcome of the country’s general election in September.
Holger Muench, the head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, didn’t tell reporters Thursday who might have been behind the most recent hacking attack. The offices of at least 10 members of Parliament were attacked last month, the German news agency dpa reported.
In the summer of 2015, the Bundestag suffered another hacker attack, which meant several networks and servers had to be taken offline for days.
German authorities have repeatedly expressed fears that foreign countries could try to influence the outcome of the elections by releasing hacked information during the campaign.
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Prince William, his wife Kate and his brother Prince Harry are spearheading a campaign to encourage people to talk openly about mental health issues.
The young royals released 10 films Thursday as part of their Heads Together campaign to change the national conversation on mental health.
The videos feature celebrities and members of the public talking about the breakthrough conversation that helped them come to terms with their mental health problems.
The former England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff and former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell are among those seen speaking about their experiences of anxiety or depression.
The films can be viewed on the Heads Together website and YouTube page.
Britain’s chief negotiator in the country’s divorce from the European Union on Thursday rejected suggestions the U.K. has threatened to end security cooperation unless it gets a good trade deal, as the U.K. announced plans for the huge task of replacing thousands of EU laws and regulations with domestic law.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said Prime Minister Theresa May’s letter triggering talks on Britain’s departure made clear Britain wants to continue to work with the EU on a range of issues, including security, for both sides.
“We want a deal, and she was making the point that it’s bad for both of us if we don’t have a deal,” Davis told the BBC. “Now that, I think, is a perfectly reasonable point to make and not in any sense a threat.”
May’s six-page letter triggering two years of divorce negotiations makes 11 references to security, and said that without a good deal, “our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened.”
The tabloid Sun was in no doubt about what May meant: “Your money or your lives,” was its front-page headline Thursday, along with the words “PM’s Brexit threat to EU.”
Britain is a European security powerhouse — one of only two nuclear powers in the bloc and with some of the world’s most capable intelligence services.
May said Wednesday that Britain will probably have to leave the EU police agency, Europol, after Brexit but wants to “maintain the degree of cooperation on these matters that we have currently.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd, whose responsibilities include intelligence and security, also denied there was a threat, but told Sky News: “If we left Europol, then we would take our information … with us. The fact is, the European partners want to keep our information.”
Senior European leaders responded positively to the warm overall tone of May’s letter — but they could not miss the steely undertone.
“I find the letter of Mrs. May very constructive generally, but there is also one threat in it,” said European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhoftstadt, saying May seemed to be demanding a good trade deal in exchange for continued security cooperation.
“It doesn’t work like that,” he told Sky News. “You cannot abuse the security of citizens to have then a good deal on something else.”
A day after triggering its EU exit process, the British government began outlining Thursday how it intends to convert thousands of EU rules into British law when it leaves the bloc in 2019.
The government published plans for a Great Repeal Bill that will transform more than 12,000 EU laws in force in Britain into U.K. statute so that “the same rules will apply after exit day” as before.
The bill is designed to prevent Britain plunging into a legislative black hole once it extricates itself from the EU.
Davis told lawmakers it would ensure that British laws are made not in Brussels but “in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.”
But opposition lawmakers are unhappy at plans to give government ministers power to change some laws without votes in Parliament.
They fear the Conservative government will use it as a chance to water down workers’ rights and environmental protections introduced in Britain during four decades of EU membership.
Labour Party Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said the proposed bill “gives sweeping powers to the executive” and lacks “rigorous safeguards” on their abuse.
The government insists executive powers will be time-limited and will only be used to make “mechanical changes” so laws can be applied smoothly. It says it is trying to balance “the need for scrutiny and the need for speed.”
The government says Parliament will be able to scrutinize all “substantive policy changes,” including new customs and immigration laws, and that environmental, workplace and human rights standards will stay in force.
Прем’єр-міністр України Володимир Гройсман заявляє, що будь-які розмови про можливу відставку нинішнього складу Кабінету міністрів і призначення нового уряду не мають підстав.
«Що стосується зміни уряду, то я вважаю, що це хтось видає бажане за дійсне», – заявив він 30 березня, відвідуючи Житомирський бронетанковий завод.
Відставки Кабміну домагається фракція «Всеукраїнське об’єднання «Батьківщина» у Верховній Раді .
Нинішній склад уряду на чолі з Володимиром Гройсманом Верховна Рада призначила 14 квітня 2016 року.
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A group of strawberry pickers from Bangladesh has won a case against Greece at Europe’s highest human rights court, after being shot at by employers for demanding unpaid wages.
The Council of Europe’s Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday in favor of 42 Bangladeshi nationals, and ordered the Greek state to pay them damages of 12,000-16,000 euros ($13,000-$17,000) each for having “failed in its obligations to prevent the situation of human trafficking, to protect the victims.”
The 2013 incident occurred near the southern Greek town of Manolada, 260 kilometers (160 miles) west of Athens, when more than 20 migrant strawberry pickers were shot and wounded by foremen wielding shotguns after demanding delayed pay.
The European case was launched after a Greek court convicted two of the shooting suspects but they were released pending their appeal.
Morsed Chowdury, the lead applicant in the European case, and the human rights watchdog Amnesty International welcomed the decision taken by the court in Strasbourg, France.
“We are very pleased and excited by today’s judgment. The Greek court’s acquittal of the farmers for the crime of forced labor was a great disappointment to us,” Chowdury said.
“We hope that the Greek government will learn from our experiences and recognize our important role in the Greek economy.”
The shootings were widely publicized, highlighting the frequent mistreatment of migrant workers in Greek farming jobs.
“Today’s judgment is an important vindication for them and their families and will hopefully help prevent future abuse,” Amnesty International’s Gauri van Gulik told the AP.
“Amnesty has met and interviewed the migrant workers about their exploitation in 2013 just after the incident and saw for ourselves their living conditions.”
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Президент України Петро Порошенко під час зустрічі з президентом Європейського парламенту Антоніо Таяні висловив сподівання на позитивне голосування Європарламенту щодо запровадження Європейським союзом безвізового режиму з Україною 6 квітня. Як повідомляє прес-служба Порошенка, зустріч відбулася 30 березня під час робочого візиту голови держави на Мальту.
«Президент України висловив переконання у подальшій незмінній підтримці Європейським парламентом під головуванням Антоніо Таяні подальшого зближення України з Європейським союзом, продовження курсу реформ та відновлення територіальної цілісності у контексті продовження російської агресії», – йдеться в повідомленні.
Петро Порошенко на зустрічі також заявив про важливість збереження і посилення санкцій щодо Росії «до відновлення Україною територіальної цілісності, включаючи Крим».
В ЄС раніше заявляли, що Україна може отримати безвізовий режим з ЄС наприкінці червня. Голосування щодо лібералізації візового режиму для України у Європарламенті має відбутися на початку квітня.
Угода про лібералізацію візового режиму буде поширюватися на всі країни ЄС, окрім Великобританії та Ірландії, а також не діятиме в країнах шенгенського простору, що не входить в ЄС, – Норвегії, Ісландії, Ліхтенштейні та Швейцарії.
У Міністерстві оборони України заявили про готовність до виконання домовленостей про припинення вогню у зоні бойових дій на Донбасі з 1 квітня, досягнутих у Мінську на засіданні тристоронньої контактної групи.
«Я не уповноважений коментувати рішення Мінської групи. Проте ще раз хочу зазначити, що і Збройні сили України, й інші силові відомства, що задіяні в АТО, готові до виконання всіх рішень Мінської групи, які будуть прийняті. Ми готові і до відведення, і до одностороннього припинення вогню, яке на сьогоднішній день і так виконується», – сказав речник Міністерства оборони з питань АТО Олександр Мотузяник 30 березня.
Він наголосив, що відповідні кроки має робити й інша сторона.
29 березня тристороння контактна група з врегулювання ситуації на Донбасі, в язасіданні якої брали участь представники України, Росії, ОБСЄ, а також представники сепаратистських угруповань «ДНР» і «ЛНР», домовилася про припинення вогню і продовження годин роботи пунктів пропуску з 1 квітня.
Водночас сторони конфлікту повідомляють про продовження обстрілів і звинувачують одна одну в цьому.
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Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a prominent ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came to New York this week to school investors on his state bank’s plans to sell new dollar bonds.
Instead, he was placed under arrest by U.S. authorities and accused of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by teaming with wealthy Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal transactions through U.S. banks to Iran’s government.
“United States sanctions are not mere requests or suggestions; they are the law,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said in a statement in New York, where Atilla was arraigned Tuesday.
He was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday.
Gold, currency allegedly sent to Iran
Atilla “protected and hid Zarrab’s ability to provide access to international financial networks,” U.S. authorities said in documents filed in the U.S. court. The documents allege that gold and currency were sent to Iran, while documents were forged to disguise the transactions as food shipments so as to comply with humanitarian exceptions to the sanctions law.
Atilla’s arrest and the case of Zarrab — arrested last year in Florida — drew a sharp rebuke from the Turkish government, which said it planned to raise the matter with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he visits Ankara this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkish media.
Relations between the U.S. and Turkey are frayed over the Syrian civil war and Turkish demands for the extradition of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish leadership blames for July’s failed coup in Turkey.
Diplomatic dispute?
In terms of the impact of the recent development on the U.S. Turkish relationship, some analysts suggest it could potentially be an issue as the two sides view the case through different lenses.
“For the U.S., it is a case of sanctions law violation,” said Ihan Tani, a journalist who follows U.S.-Turkish relations. “But some people close to the Turkish president seem to be involved with Reza Zarrab.”
Tani added that because of the involvement of close aides of the Turkish president, the issue could escalate into a diplomatic dispute.
But Tani said Atilla knew that U.S authorities viewed him as a potential suspect.
“He knew that he was part of the U.S. investigation here. So why did he come to this country? It is hard to understand. If he took a risk, now he is paying for it,” Tani said.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on his motives to travel to the U.S.
Lender’s shares drop
The arrest could have major financial implications for Turkish state lender Halkbank. Bank shares posted their biggest one-day fall on Wednesday.
Halkbank, Turkey’s fifth-largest bank in terms of assets, vowed to investigate.
“Our bank and relevant state bodies are conducting the necessary work on the subject, and information will be shared with the public when it is obtained,” Halkbank said in a statement.
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Farmers around the world are using an unsustainable amount of well water to irrigate their crops, which could lead to an uptick in food prices as that water runs low, international researchers warned Wednesday.
Farmers are increasing their use of groundwater to grow staple crops such as rice, wheat and cotton, the scientists said. But much of that water use is unsustainable, as water is being pumped out faster than it can be naturally replenished.
“Groundwater depletion is increasing rapidly, especially in the last 10, 20 years, due to the increasing populations and also associated food production,” said Yoshihide Wada, deputy water program director at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a science organization in Austria.
The shortages are occurring in some big agricultural producers such as India, China and the United States, he said.
But they could have an impact on a much wider area of the world because “much of the agricultural production is traded internationally,” he said.
An estimated 11 percent of crops irrigated with nonrenewable groundwater are traded internationally after harvest, the researchers said in a report published in the journal Nature.
Countries such as Pakistan, Iran and India, which use the most groundwater to grow food, are already suffering from water scarcity, the report said.
For many countries “it doesn’t really make sense that you’re exporting a lot of food that comes from groundwater depletion,” Wada said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Effect on food prices
Unsustainable use of groundwater could lead to rising future food prices, as countries are forced to spend more money to find water to irrigate their crops, he said.
Depleted supplies of groundwater could also hurt local people, who rely on the water for day-to-day use and for other things, including fighting fires or dealing with other emergencies, the scientists said.
Droughts, which are expected to increase as a result of climate change, could also increase the shortages of groundwater and affect food supplies, lead author Carole Dalin added in a statement.
“Where and how the products are grown is crucial, and basic foods like rice and bread could have a damaging impact on global water supplies,” said Dalin, a research fellow at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Resources.
Unless both food producers and food buyers adopt strategies to use water more wisely, “most of the world’s population risks seeing increased food prices or disrupted food supply,” she warned.
Wada said governments should more closely monitor the use of groundwater and invest in things like drip irrigation technology, which can dramatically cut water use, to better prepare for the future and conserve natural resources.
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Russian high school student Roman Shingarkin had some explaining to do when he got home after becoming one of the faces of anti-Kremlin protests at the weekend. His father is a former member of parliament who supports President Vladimir Putin.
At the height of a protest in Moscow on Sunday against what organizers said was official corruption, 17-year-old Shingarkin and another young man climbed onto the top of a lamp-post in the city’s Pushkin Square.
Hundreds of protesters in the square cheered and whistled as a police officer, dressed in riot gear, shinned up the lamp-post and remonstrated with the two to come down. They refused, and the police officer retreated, to jubilation from the protesters down below.
As images of the protests, the biggest in Russia for several years, ricocheted around social media, Shingarkin’s sit-in on top of the lamp-post was adopted by Kremlin opponents as a David-and-Goliath style symbol of defiance.
Shingarkin was eventually detained when, after the protest in Pushkin Square had dispersed, police persuaded him to climb down. He was taken to a police station but as a minor, he could not be charged. From the police station, he had to ring his father to ask to be picked up.
His father, Maxim Shingarkin, was from 2011 until 2016 a lawmaker in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament. He was a member of the LDPR party, a nationalist group that on nearly all major issues backs Putin.
Putin last year gave the party’s leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a medal for services to Russia. With Putin standing next to him, Zhirinovsky proclaimed: “God protect the tsar.”
Shingarkin had not told his father he would be going to the protest, but the former lawmaker quickly guessed what had happened.
“When I rang my dad from the police station, he immediately understood why I was there,” Shingarkin, wearing the same blue and black coat he had on during the protest, said in an interview with Reuters TV.
“I went there [to the rally] out of interest to see how strong the opposition is, how many people would take to the streets, and at the same time to get a response from authorities to a clear fact of corruption.”
He decided to climb up the lamp-post because he “could see nothing from the ground.”
Contacted by telephone on Wednesday, Shingarkin senior said he was sympathetic with his son’s motives for attending the protest.
“He has a social position, against corruption, I support it completely,” Maxim Shingarkin said.
But he emphasised that his son’s actions did not mean that he or the family were opponents of Putin.
The Russian leader, Shingarkin senior said, is popular among voters and there is no one to replace him, but he is let down by the officials around him.
Roman Shingarkin said for now he would not attend any more protests unless they were approved by the authorities.
He said he might venture to a non-approved demonstration once he turns 18, because if he gets into trouble then, the police will charge him and not involve his parents.
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Venezuela has arrested a senior manager of state oil company PDVSA on suspicion of “irregularities” in contracts to supply fuel to the domestic market, authorities said on Wednesday.
The detention of international commerce manager Marco Malave, 47, followed a shakeup of personnel at PDVSA’s trade department since January and amid gasoline shortages around the South American OPEC nation last week.
“PDVSA representatives denounced a series of irregularities in the protocol for contracting companies with vessels to supply the referred hydrocarbon to the Venezuelan market,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The situation affected fuel distribution in seven states, including the capital Caracas, it said. Malave was arrested last week in Caracas and his bank accounts have been frozen.
Vow to battle corruption
President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government and Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., familiarly known as PDVSA, have repeatedly vowed to take steps to combat corruption, which has affected Venezuela and its oil industry for decades.
Earlier this month, the heads of Venezuela-based subcontracting companies Castillo Max and Guevara Training were arrested and charged with corruption for overbilling in equipment sales at the main oil-exporting port Jose.
Jesus Osorio, the former manager of Jose terminal, was jailed in February over the purchase of two floating platforms costing $76.2 million.
Opposition leaders have said that PDVSA has been crippled by malfeasance under 18 years of socialist rule.
A probe last year by the opposition-run Congress said $11 billion had gone missing from PDVSA. The government dismissed that as part of a right-wing smear campaign.
Change at the top?
Rumors are rife inside PDVSA and in the wider oil sector that company president Eulogio del Pino may depart soon, to be replaced by Oil Minister Nelson Martinez. There has been no official word on this. Attempts to reach Del Pino have been unsuccessful.
“Del Pino’s apparent replacement Nelson Martinez is part of this broader trend of promoting loyalists,” Eurasia consultancy analyst Risa Grais-Targow wrote in a report on Wednesday.
“Martinez is close to Maduro, who has long wanted him to head PDVSA. Martinez represents the most viable alternative to Del Pino considering a shallow bench of skilled oil sector technocrats.”
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