Beating tax cheats key to Italy’s recovery plan
















ROME (AP) — Good plumbers may be worth their weight in gold, but when one was spotted zipping around in a bright red Ferrari, Italian tax police were fast on his trail.


Stamping out entrenched tax evasion is crucial to Premier Mario Monti‘s quest to keep Italy from succumbing to the European debt crisis, and it is critical to fellow eurozone members in more dire straits, such as Greece and Spain — which are also notorious for making cheating the taxman a way of life.













Indeed, Greece’s international rescue creditors have been pressing Greece for two years to reform its ailing tax system, citing poor collection as a key factor keeping the country mired in crisis. In Spain, where tax fraud is rampant, as much as €90 billion ($ 150 billion) is lost each year to tax fraud — the equivalent of the country’s national debt, according to Spain’s main tax inspectors union.


To succeed in Italy, authorities will have to catch the legions of self-employed and small business owners who brazenly lie about their earnings, like the plumber in the eastern town of Pescara, who socked away undeclared income in 30 bank accounts, or a successful pastry shop owner in Calabria, who on his tax return claimed he was earning next to crumbs.


And those are the less sophisticated schemers.


Tax police officials say that wealthy Italians, their companies and foreigners who make their money in Italy are increasingly trying to avoid taxes by using such strategies as falsely declaring that their base of operations or residence is abroad.


Another daunting challenge is the so-called “submerged” economy, a term embracing Italians who declare only a fraction or nothing at all of their earnings — and dentists, lawyers, doctors and other big-earning professionals are frequently among the worst offenders.


Tax evasion of all types in Italy totals about euros 240 billion ($ 300 billion), or 15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product of €1.6 trillion ($ 2 trillion), tax police estimate. Winning the war on tax cheats could therefore more than wipe out the country’s budget deficit, which is expected to increase to euros 42 billion ($ 53 billion), or 2.6 percent of GDP this year. That would start knocking away at the nation’s colossal public debt of €2 trillion ($ 2.5 trillion), or 125 percent of GDP.


But “big international frauds are up,” lamented Lt. Col. Gianluca Campana, in charge of the income tax unit revenue protection office at the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s financial police corps which reports to the Economy Ministry.


The entrenched practice by many cafes, eateries, hair dressers and similar small business of neglecting to give customers mandatory cash register receipts commonly grabs the attention in crackdowns on tax evasion in Italy.


But, cautioned Campana, “one false (big business) invoice can equal no cash register receipts for coffees for two months.”


Over all of 2011, the total of non-declared income discovered by tax police amounted to some €50 billion ($ 65 billion), of which some 20 percent was due to international tax evasion, he said. By comparison, in the first nine months of this year, tax police discovered some €40 billion in undeclared income, with 30 percent of that blamed on international tax evasion, Campana said.


With the economic crisis shrinking bottom lines, and Italy increasingly on the hunt for big-time evasion, especially by big businesses, “there is a tendency to move capital abroad, using maneuvers apparently legal but which really are not,” Campana said. A classic technique consists of declaring one’s formal residence abroad in tax havens like Monte Carlo. Also common are companies that clearly have their business base in Italy but claim it is abroad in countries with far lower tax brackets.


Campana is armed with three degrees, including a masters in tax law from Milan’s Bocconi University, the prestigious economics institute formerly headed by Monti. He brings skills to this specialized police corps that are as finely tuned as sharp-shooting.


“We are going after the big cases (of evasion) in order to rake in more money,” Campana said.


The Ferrari-driving plumber hid some €2 million ($ 2.6 million) of his income over several years by giving his customers invoices — for jobs ranging from fixing leaks to installing new bathrooms — for the actual cost of his work, but kept a second, false registry of much lower figures for tax purposes, said Pescara tax police Col. Mauro Odorisio.


Armed with a 2008 law, authorities confiscated assets belonging to the plumber equivalent to the approximately €1 million ($ 1.3 million) they contend he owed in taxes, Odorisio said.


With Ferraris in red or yellow, and snazzy Porsches parked inside, Guardia di Finanza garages practically resemble luxury car dealerships.


The cars get sold to help recoup unpaid taxes and interest.


Overall, tax revenues in Italy were up by 4.1 percent, says the Economy Ministry, when comparing figures from the first eight months of 2012 with the same period in 2011, but much of that was due to new taxes, and not necessarily a revolution in citizens’ consciences about tax obligations.


Monti’s recipe relies heavily on taxes that are nearly impossible to avoid, such as sales tax. He also revived a property tax that his populist predecessor, Premier Silvio Berlusconi, had abolished in a promise to voters.


The ministry’s report last month noted that the property tax figured prominently in the “tendency toward growth” in tax revenues. But sales tax revenue dropped slightly despite higher sales tax rates, indicating that consumers were feeling the pinch of the stagnant economy.


The heavier fiscal burden seems to have driven some honest citizens to rebel against the engrained culture of tax evasion.


The number of phone calls from the public to the tax police’s hotline to report stores, restaurants and other businesses that didn’t give customers sales receipts has almost doubled in the first nine months of this year, compared with the same period in 2011.


It’s apparently dawning on Italians that shirking taxes in the end only costs them, in terms of ever-higher levies and cutbacks in public services.


Citizens now increasingly understand that “the lack of revenue over time caused by tax evaders forced the government to stiffen the tax burden on categories where you can’t evade taxes,” Campana said, referring to workers whose taxes are deducted from paychecks. Another area where evasion is close to impossible is real estate ownership.


Odorisio noted the crackdown included extending the statute of limitations on tax evasion from six to eight years and establishing prison as a penalty for big-time evasion.


Other weapons include a measure promoted by the Monti government that limits cash payments to no more than €1,000. Paying by credit card or personal check is a relatively new habit for Italians, who are used to carrying wads of cash in their pockets, even for big-ticket items like home renovations or vacations.


Past governments in Italy sometimes resorted to tax amnesties to try to boost revenues. But critics, contending some Italians counted on such a possibility, described that strategy as only perpetuating the tax cheat culture.


Spain hasn’t had much success with its own tax amnesty introduced by the conservative government in March. That measure, expiring soon, allows undeclared assets or those hidden in tax havens to be repatriated by paying a 10 percent tax without criminal penalty. The amnesty is estimated to recuperate far less than the expected €2.5 billion ($ 3.25 billion).


Greece saw demands for tax system reform from international rescue creditors added on to conditions for future rescue loan payments, as Greek authorities acknowledged that a high-profile campaign to crack down on major tax cheats has produced disappointing results.


The cash-strapped government over the last 10 months recovered just €19 million ($ 25 million) of the €13 billion ($ 17 billion) of arrears on the list. A prominent Greek magazine publisher recently tapped anger over rich tax evaders by publishing a list of people allegedly holding Swiss bank accounts. He was acquitted this month of breaching privacy laws.


Meanwhile, Italian tax police are chasing after cheats who have shown some of the most chutzpah about not paying their fair share of taxes, like the Padua woman who advertised on the Internet that she had a couple of “cash-only” bed and breakfast rooms to let.


Tax police discovered the lodgings are part of an apartment in public housing she was given after falsely declaring she was indigent on her annual tax forms.


____


AP reporters Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Ciaran Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.


Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Verizon and HTC’s latest twist: The $199 Droid DNA
















Verizon and HTC unveiled a new device that the two hope will appeal to customers during the holiday season, while helping to reverse HTC’s floundering fortunes.


The phone, the Droid DNA, sports a 5-inch screen, putting it more in the “phablet” category with Samsung‘s Galaxy Note. It runs on Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and includes a boatload of powerful features, including a Super LCD 3 display with 440 pixels per inch, capable of playing 1080p HD video.













HTC noted the screen rivals traditional HDTVs, while the pixel density is among the highest available on any smartphone. The iPhone 5′s Retina display, for example, is 326 pixels per inch.


The device runs on a quad-core, 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, with 4G LTE integrated on the same piece of silicon as the application processor. Having one chip instead of two improves battery life.


The phone is also capable of wireless charging and full HD video chat. The device has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2.1-megapixel camera in the front. HTC noted its phone features HTC ImageSense and HTC ImageChip to create faster image processing and better quality photos, as well as a quick-launch camera option.


The Droid DNA also has Beats audio and two amplifiers, one for headphone and one for speaker. And it’s equipped with near-field communications technology to share music and other content by tapping other NFC-enabled devices.


Droid DNA goes on sale on November 21 for $ 199.99 with a two-year contract. Pre-sales begin today. The phone is available exclusively through Verizon.


The hefty specs should appeal to customers looking for alternatives to the latest gadgets from Samsung and Apple during the holiday season. For HTC, it’s pretty important that they do.


The Taiwanese handset maker really needs a hit phone. Previously the darling of the smartphone world, HTC has been having a tough time lately. Samsung and Apple are dominating the industry’s profits and market share, leaving little for HTC, Motorola, Nokia, and other handset vendors. HTC also has faced litigation, though it reached a settlement with Apple a few days ago.


The company has said it plans to go bolder with its messaging to consumers and the media, relying less on joint marketing campaigns with the carriers and standing more independently to tell the HTC story. It also has said it would try to generate buzz through social media and by seeing out influential celebrities and “superfans” for endorsements. So far, it’s unclear whether such steps are paying off.


Related stories:


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit lays off 500 employees: source
















LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Comcast Corp‘s NBCUniversal entertainment unit is laying off about 500 employees at cable channels, Jay Leno‘s late-night TV show and the Universal Pictures movie studio, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Monday.


The cuts add up to about 1.5 percent of the company’s workforce of 30,000 employees, the source said.













A large portion of the layoffs occurred at the G4 cable channel, a network about video games and the gaming culture, the source said. Two of the network’s shows were recently canceled.


Other layoffs occurred about two months ago at “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” which cut about two dozen crew members.


The company’s movie studio, Universal Pictures, also eliminated about 20 jobs, including some at the home entertainment division. Home entertainment sales have suffered across the industry as traditional DVDs fall from favor with consumers.


Other job cuts are expected at NBC News group and the company’s cable channels, which include USA, Bravo and E!, the source said.


Comcast bought a 51 percent controlling stake in NBC Universal in January 2011.


(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Writing by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Peter Lauria and Paul Tait)


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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EU lawmakers challenge Catholic nominee for health job
















BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European lawmakers challenged Malta‘s nominee for the EU’s top health job on Tuesday because of his contempt for homosexuals and opposition to abortion, after his predecessor quit over an investigation linking him to bribery.


European Greens, Liberals and Socialists, who make up half the parliament, spoke out against Tonio Borg, Malta’s foreign minister and a devout Catholic who has lobbied against abortion in his home country.













“I don’t doubt your ability but I do question your views,” British Liberal Democrat Chris Davies told Borg during a three-hour hearing on his nomination.


A 50-strong group of EU lawmakers pressed Borg for at least an hour to either defend his views on abortion and homosexuality or repeal them. They will cast a non-binding vote on Borg’s nomination by secret ballot next week.


Borg avoided being drawn. “These are matters to be exclusively decided by member states. It has been the standard answer and that will be my standard answer,” he added.


Conservatives, who are likely to back Borg’s nomination, make up a little less than half the parliament, with independents holding the remaining seats.


The controversy threatens to further embarrass the European Commission after the previous health commissioner, Malta’s John Dalli, resigned last month in a tobacco lobbying scandal.


It also casts doubt on selection procedures at the EU executive which places officials in unelected posts that shape regulation across Europe at a time when many Europeans question the Commission’s democratic legitimacy.


Borg’s personal views matter because the EU health commissioner oversees sensitive policy on issues such as access to healthcare, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and stem cell research, lawmakers and rights groups say.


At least one rights group, the European Humanist Federation, has written to the Commission’s president Jose Manuel Barroso to protest Borg’s nomination.


In 2004, the parliament’s decision to reject Italian politician Rocco Buttiglione, who said he believed homosexuality was a sin, forced Italy to put forward someone else for the post of justice commissioner.


“THAT’S ALL WE NEED NOW”


Christian groups say Borg is being unfairly targeted for his Catholic faith. Borg, who is also Malta’s deputy prime minister, has insisted his views are not extremist and that he champions everyone’s right to their own opinions.


His comments from 2009 during a debate in the Maltese parliament on property laws have caused the most fuss among liberals in Brussels and in Malta. Borg is reported to have said gay couples could not expect to be eligible for social housing.


“That’s all we need now. After we’ve finally decided to limit inheritance to married couples and children, now we are expected to extend this protection to those who decide to go and live with someone of the same sex,” Borg is cited saying in 2009, according to an October 29 European Parliament report.


Malta is a conservative country and in June the island nation said it wanted the Commission to stop funding stem cell research using human embryos, which is allowed in some EU countries.


The former commissioner Dalli was questioned by police in Malta on Tuesday, local media reported, over the tobacco corruption scandal which forced his resignation.


(Additional reporting by Christopher Scicluna in Malta; Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by Rosalind Russell)


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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General investigated for emails to Petraeus friend
















PERTH, Australia (AP) — In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.


Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.













Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.


A senior defense official traveling with Panetta said Allen’s communications were with Jill Kelley, who has been described as an unpaid social liaison at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., which is headquarters to the U.S. Central Command. She is not a U.S. government employee.


Kelley is said to have received threatening emails from Broadwell, who is Petraeus’ biographer and who had an extramarital affair with Petraeus that reportedly began after he became CIA director in September 2011.


Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Friday.


Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.


The senior official, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because it is under investigation, said Panetta believed it was prudent to launch a Pentagon investigation, although the official would not explain the nature of Allen’s problematic communications.


The official said 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen’s communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.


“Gen. Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter,” the official said. He said Allen currently is in Washington.


Panetta said that while the matter is being investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General, Allen will remain in his post as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul. He praised Allen as having been instrumental in making progress in the war.


The FBI’s decision to refer the Allen matter to the Pentagon rather than keep it itself, combined with Panetta’s decision to allow Allen to continue as Afghanistan commander without a suspension, suggested strongly that officials viewed whatever happened as a possible infraction of military rules rather than a violation of federal criminal law.


Allen was Deputy Commander of Central Command, based in Tampa, prior to taking over in Afghanistan. He also is a veteran of the Iraq war.


In the meantime, Panetta said, Allen’s nomination to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has been put on hold “until the relevant facts are determined.” He had been expected to take that new post in early 2013, if confirmed by the Senate, as had been widely expected.


Panetta said President Barack Obama was consulted and agreed that Allen’s nomination should be put on hold. Allen was to testify at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Panetta said he asked committee leaders to delay that hearing.


NATO officials had no comment about the delay in Allen’s appointment.


“We have seen Secretary Panetta‘s statement,” NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels. “It is a U.S. investigation.”


Panetta also said he wants the Senate Armed Services Committee to act promptly on Obama’s nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to succeed Allen as commander in Afghanistan. That nomination was made several weeks ago. Dunford’s hearing is also scheduled for Thursday.


___


Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.


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Windows Server Developers Can Now Use HP Cloud to Build, Deploy and Scale Their Applications
















I am happy to share that HP Cloud Compute now supports Microsoft Windows Server 2008 instances in addition to the variety of Linux distributions that are already available. Windows Server instances can now be launched in our US-West region. Since HP Cloud Compute is in public beta, all customers receive a 50% discount (see pricing below).



It is a priority for us to provide the tools that enable developers to quickly build, test, deploy and scale their applications in the cloud. That is why we created our CLI for Windows so that developers working in a Windows Server environment can quickly launch and manage their instances using the command line.













The three Windows Server images available are the Enterprise Editions of Windows Server 2008 SP2 (32 bit), Windows Server 2008 SP2 (64 bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit).  All Windows Server instances are created with a randomly generated password, which is then encrypted.  You can create and manage your Windows Server instances from our console, UNIX CLI and Windows CLI. For information about how to access your Windows Server instances using Remote Desktop (RDP), please review our documentation here.


The licenses for a Windows Server instance are included in the hourly rate for your instance, so you can spin up a server and get started without needing to worry about any additional licensing concerns.  Please see the table below for details about the hourly fees for both standard HP Cloud Compute Linux Instances and HP Cloud Compute Windows Server Instances.  While HP Cloud Compute continues in public beta, all customers receive a 50% discount off the prices listed below.























HP Cloud Compute Instance Types

Linux


(per hour)


Windows


(per hour)

Extra Small (1GB RAM, 1 core, 30GB disk)
$ 0.04
$ 0.06
Small (2GB RAM, 2 cores, 60GB disk)
$ 0.08 
$ 0.12
Medium (4GB RAM, 2 cores, 120GB disk)
$ 0.16
$ 0.24
Large (8GB RAM, 4 cores, 240GB disk)
$ 0.32
$ 0.48
Extra Large (16GB RAM, 4 cores, 480GB disk)
$ 0.64
$ 0.96
Double Extra Large (32GB RAM, 8 cores, 960GB disk)
$ 1.28
$ 1.92

Our team has been working hard to ensure that we are able to support all of your public cloud needs and appreciate all those that participated in our private and public betas.  We are very excited about the launch of Windows Server instances.  Stay tuned as we plan to launch support for additional versions of Windows Server including Windows Server 2012 in the coming months.  As always, feel free to leave a comment, connect with us on chat or email or find us on twitter (@hpcloud) if you have any questions.


Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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RIM to unveil new BlackBerry phones on Jan. 30.
















TORONTO (AP) — Research In Motion said Monday that it will hold an official launch event for its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones on Jan. 30. The new phones are seen as critical to RIM’s survival.


The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said Monday details on the much-delayed smartphones and their availability will be announced at the event.













The announcement comes as the company struggles in North America to hold onto customers who are abandoning BlackBerrys for flashier iPhones and Android phones.


RIM’s current software is still focused on email and messaging, and is less user-friendly, agile and robust than iPhone or Android. Its attempt at touch screens was a flop, and it lacks the apps that power other smartphones. RIM is hanging its hopes on the BlackBerry 10 software. It is thoroughly redesigned for the touchscreen, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now expect. The Canadian company said the launch event will happen simultaneously in multiple countries.


Jefferies analyst Peter Misek called it a make-or-break product release and said the date of the launch event suggests a release date in mid- to late February or in March.


A full touchscreen device is expected to be released first followed shortly after by a physical keyboard version.


BGC Financial Partners analyst Colin Gillis said the new phones won’t be dead on arrival as some analysts have said because RIM hasn’t lost the corporate market completely.


“Is 10 going to be the solution to retain that marketplace? We’ll have to wait and see,” Gillis said. “It’s great they set a date, but the challenges are still formidable. It’s not an issue of initial demand. It’s an issue of sustained demand.”


Gillis noted that RIM’s launch of a tablet initially went OK but then demand fell sharply. RIM’s tablet, the Playbook, uses software on which the BlackBerry 10 will be based.


RIM said last month the new BlackBerrys are being tested by 50 wireless carriers around the world.


Thorsten Heins, who took over as CEO in January after the company lost tens of billions in market value, had vowed to do everything he could to release BlackBerry 10 this year but said in June that the timetable wasn’t realistic. Heins says he can turn things around with BlackBerry 10.


The new BlackBerrys will be released after the holiday shopping season and well after Apple’s launch of the iPhone 5, expected to be Apple’s biggest product introduction yet.


RIM’s platform transition is also happening under a new management team and as RIM lays off 5,000 employees as part of a bid to save $ 1 billion.


RIM was once Canada‘s most valuable company with a market value of more than $ 80 billion in 2008, but the stock has plummeted since, from over $ 140 per share to around $ 8. Its decline evokes memories of Nortel, another former Canadian tech giant, which declared bankruptcy in 2009.


Shares of RIM rose 20 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $ 8.74 in midday trading in New York after rising as high as $ 9.07 earlier.


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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U2′s Bono to urge U.S. politicians not to cut aid programs
















WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Irish rocker and anti-poverty campaigner Bono will appeal to Democrats and Republicans during a visit to Washington this week to spare U.S. development assistance programs from cuts as Congress tries to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending reductions early next year.


The U2 lead singer’s visit comes as the Obama administration and congressional leaders try to forge a deal in coming weeks to avoid the economy hitting the “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and spending cuts worth $ 600 billion starting in January if Congress does not act.













Analysts say the absence of a deal could shock the United States, the world’s biggest economy, back into recession.


Kathy McKiernan, spokeswoman for the ONE Campaign, said Bono will hold talks with congressional lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials during the November 12-14 visit.


During meetings he will stress the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and the need to preserve them to avoid putting at risk progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, she said.


Bono, a long-time advocate for the poor, will argue that U.S. government-funded schemes that support life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS sufferers, nutrition programs for malnourished children, and emergency food aid make up just 1 percent of the U.S. government budget but are helping to save tens of millions of lives in impoverished nations.


The One Campaign would not elaborate which lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials Bono will meet.


On Monday, Bono will discuss the power of social movements with students at Georgetown University. He will also meet new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for a web cast discussion on Wednesday on the challenges of eradicating poverty.


(Editing by W Simon)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Turkey needs help to cope with Syrian exodus: Red Cross
















GENEVA (Reuters) – Turkey needs millions of dollars in foreign aid to cope with a still-growing surge of Syrians fleeing their country’s prolonged civil war, the world’s largest disaster relief network said on Monday.


More than 110,000 refugees have already registered in Turkey since the uprising against Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad began in March last year.













The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it had now drawn up plans to help Ankara support at least another 10,000 people gathered on the Syrian side of the border and 50,000 more who could cross over in the next six months.


The Federation said it was appealing for 32.3 million Swiss francs ($ 34.04 million) to get food and winter shelter to a total of 170,000 refugees, and to help Ankara scale up its response to the exodus.


“We’ve seen a doubling of the camp population since July 2012. And I think that as you have seen over the last few days, there has been an increase in the number of Syrians moving into Turkey,” Simon Eccleshall, head of disaster and crisis management at the Federation, told a news briefing in Geneva.


About 9,000 Syrians crossed into Turkey in a 24-hour period last Friday alone, swelling the numbers who have fled intensified fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels in Aleppo and other parts of northern Syria.


Forces loyal to Assad bombarded the Ras al-Ain area on the border with Turkey on Sunday, days after the town fell to rebels.


Turkish authorities, along with the Turkish Red Crescent Society, are providing for the refugees in 14 camps near the open but volatile border and plan to build three more camps.


“They now recognize that the situation is becoming prolonged, the initial thoughts that the population might be displaced for a shorter amount of time are now being reassessed and the government of Turkey along with its partners are planning for the contingency of a longer-term assistance program,” Eccleshall said.


The Turkish government has spent up to $ 300 million and is looking to partners including the Federation and U.N.’s World Food Program to share the burden of escalating costs, he said.


The six-month appeal seeks cash to buy cooking stoves, electric heaters, blankets and other winter items to Syrians already in southern Turkey, as well as essential food, hygiene kits, and blankets for people congregated near the border.


“However, I think that if the situation continues to deteriorate and the number of displaced people increases, we will be required to revise the appeal upwards,” Eccleshall said.


Lebanon and Jordan each host 115,000 Syrians, many of whom are staying with relatives, while Iraq has taken in 50,000, according to the latest figures from the U.N. refugee agency.


In addition, an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 Syrians are staying in urban areas in Turkey and have not registered as refugees, UNHCR spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes told Reuters.


“The numbers are significant in Turkey. One of the reasons that we are putting emphasis on this today is that there is a lack of other actors on the ground in Turkey,” Eccleshall said.


($ 1 = 0.9489 Swiss francs)


(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens)


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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U2′s Bono to urge U.S. politicians not to cut aid programs
















WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Irish rocker and anti-poverty campaigner Bono will appeal to Democrats and Republicans during a visit to Washington this week to spare U.S. development assistance programs from cuts as Congress tries to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending reductions early next year.


The U2 lead singer’s visit comes as the Obama administration and congressional leaders try to forge a deal in coming weeks to avoid the economy hitting the “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and spending cuts worth $ 600 billion starting in January if Congress does not act.













Analysts say the absence of a deal could shock the United States, the world’s biggest economy, back into recession.


Kathy McKiernan, spokeswoman for the ONE Campaign, said Bono will hold talks with congressional lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials during the November 12-14 visit.


During meetings he will stress the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and the need to preserve them to avoid putting at risk progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, she said.


Bono, a long-time advocate for the poor, will argue that U.S. government-funded schemes that support life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS sufferers, nutrition programs for malnourished children, and emergency food aid make up just 1 percent of the U.S. government budget but are helping to save tens of millions of lives in impoverished nations.


The One Campaign would not elaborate which lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials Bono will meet.


On Monday, Bono will discuss the power of social movements with students at Georgetown University. He will also meet new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for a web cast discussion on Wednesday on the challenges of eradicating poverty.


(Editing by W Simon)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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