Every Wednesday, the Sifter posts top-line summaries to current events around the globe. All news articles are from Reuters, The New York Times and BBC News.


Haiti cholera reaches Dominican Republic [BBC News]

- The Dominican Republic has detected its first case of cholera, following the outbreak of the disease in neighbouring Haiti last month. The patient is a Haitian migrant who had recently returned from his homeland, the health minister said
- More than 1,000 Haitians have died of the disease. Dominican health minister Bautista Rojas said the patient, a 32-year-old Haitian construction worker, was being treated in isolation in the eastern town of Higuey. Like Haiti, the Dominican Republic had not had a confirmed case of cholera in more than a century until this year
- The epidemic has provoked fear and anger in Haiti. The country was already struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake in January which killed about 230,000 people in and around the capital Port-au-Prince and shattered its already poor infrastructure. On Monday two people died during violent protests against UN peacekeepers, whom some Haitians accuse of bringing cholera into Haiti

Bout extradition: Russia criticises US pressure [BBC News]

- Russia has described as a “blatant injustice” Thailand’s decision to extradite alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to the US to face charges of conspiring to sell weapons. He was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a US-led operation. The former Russian air force officer, 43, has been accused of trying to sell arms to Colombian rebels, and supplying weapons that fuelled conflicts in Africa and the Middle East
- The 43-year-old is thought to have knowledge of Russia’s military and intelligence operations, and Russian diplomats fear the revelations he might make in open court. Dubbed the Merchant of Death by a British politician, he was alleged to have supplied arms to Angola, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo
- He is also suspected of having used his network of air freight companies to supply weapons, in the early 1990s, to Afghanistan and Bosnia. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. But he denies being, or ever having been, an arms dealer – and Moscow also insists he is innocent

Analysis: Image triumphs, economic failures for Obama in Asia [Reuters]

- Obama heads home on Sunday from his trip to India, Indonesia and economic summits in South Korea and Japan after public relations triumphs on his first stops, but disappointments on the economic issues that were the primary focus of the trip
- Foreign leaders stood up to Obama at the G20 summit in Seoul, refusing to back Washington’s desire for hard targets to support its push for balanced global growth and pressure on China to move to a market-driven exchange rate. In an embarrassing setback for both Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, U.S. and South Korean negotiators failed to reach an agreement on their stalled free trade pact, after Obama had pledged to have a deal in time for his visit
- The Democratic president left for Asia just three days after his party suffered big defeats in mid-term elections at the hands of voters worried over the sputtering U.S. economy and unemployment stuck near 10 percent for more than a year. The trip was intended to counteract that frustration with a stress on opening new markets for American goods and improving the jobs picture, so the timing was especially tough

China’s C919 passenger jet wins first orders [BBC News]

- A breakthrough first order has been made for 100 Chinese-made jetliners. Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) has taken its first orders for the C919 passenger planes from three domestic airlines and General Electric’s leasing arm. The orders are being seen as a vote of confidence in state-owned Comac
- The move may also mark a challenge to the dominance of Boeing and Airbus who have virtual control of the trillion dollar aircraft industry. Comac expects to sell more than 2,000 C919s over the next 20 years. China is the world’s fastest growing major economy and its domestic air travel market is set to expand rapidly over the next decade. A billion Chinese are predicted to be flying for business and leisure in the near future and China is keen to reduce its reliance on foreign planes
- The model, which has 166 seats competes with Boeing’s 737 and the Airbus A320. According to estimates by Boeing, this segment of the market could be worth $1.7trillion over the next 20 years. Comac expects to start building the aircraft next year, followed by a maiden flight in 2014 with first delivery in 2016

Myanmar people overjoyed but worry about Suu Kyi [Reuters]

- The release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is still being celebrated in Myanmar but fears about her safety or re-arrest are running high among her adoring supporters. The Nobel laureate and daughter of the country’s independence hero was released on Saturday after seven years in detention but many are concerned her freedom could be short-lived if the country’s oppressive army rulers decide to wield their power
- In a country where distrust of the military runs deep, her supporters would have every reason to be concerned. Suu Kyi’s motorcade was attacked in May 2003 by pro-junta thugs in the town of Depayin while on a countryside tour. She was placed back under house arrest, which the regime called “protective custody.”
- Suu Kyi spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention because of her fight against military dictatorship in Myanmar. She already appears on a collision course with the generals, using her first major speech on Sunday to call for freedom of speech in a country where all media are strictly monitored by censors and urging supporters to stand up for their rights. In an interview with the BBC that aired on Monday, she called for a “peaceful revolution” in the country of 50 million people

Global spam e-mail drops after hacker arrests [BBC News]

- Levels of spam have fallen by almost 50% since August 2010, suggest figures. Figures compiled by security firm Symantec show that the amount of junk e-mail messages flowing around the net has dropped 47% in three months. Kaspersky Labs noted a similar fall from July to September, when spam levels fell to 81.1% of all e-mails
- The decline was put down to the arrests of those behind spam-sending botnets, and intelligence work that saw other spamming systems shut down. In the last few months security firms have scored several notable successes against gangs that own and operate botnets – collections of hijacked home computers. The vast majority of spam or junk mail is routed through these hijacked machines
- One of the biggest successes was against the Pushdo or Cutwail botnet, which had been in operation since 2007 and was thought to be sending about 10% of global spam. Bredolab was another big botnet hit in October. At its height Bredolab was thought to involve up to 30 million computers around the world and be capable of sending 3.6 billion e-mails every day

Upsized GM IPO could be biggest deal ever [Reuters]

- General Motors Co GM.UL is boosting the size of its common stock offering by more than 30 percent to $15.5 billion, two people familiar with the matter said, potentially making its landmark IPO the largest U.S. offering ever. The expansion comes in response to surging demand from investors, who had put in orders worth $70 billion for GM’s common shares by late on Tuesday
- GM’s initial public offering, which will reduce the U.S. Treasury to a minority shareholder in the top U.S. automaker, could raise nearly $23 billion if underwriters exercise the full overallotment option on both common and preferred shares. The deal could also pay back over $15 billion to the U.S. government, assuming that shares price at the high end of the range and all of the common stock on offer is sold
- That would take the Obama administration closer to break-even on a still controversial bailout that some critics had predicted would be a financial quagmire for taxpayers. The largest U.S. IPO to date was Visa Inc’s (V.N) $19.7 billion stock sale in 2008. The increased size of the GM IPO reflects renewed confidence in the outlook for the world’s No. 2 automaker less than a year and a half after dwindling cash and falling sales pushed it into a bankruptcy funded by the U.S. Treasury

BHP kills Potash Corp bid, revives $4.2 billion buyback [Reuters]

- BHP Billiton scrapped its $39 billion bid for Canada’s Potash Corp and bowed to calls from investors to return cash, a move that came days after regulators blocked the year’s biggest takeover deal. BHP, conceding defeat for the third straight time on a major proposed merger or acquisition, signaled with its revived $4.2 billion share buyback that it had limited opportunities for other big buys
- Canada blocked BHP’s hostile bid for the world’s largest fertilizer maker on November 3 and gave BHP a month to prove the takeover would benefit Canada. “Unfortunately, despite having received all required antitrust clearances for the offer, we have not been able to obtain clearance under the Investment Canada Act and have accordingly decided to withdraw the offer,” BHP Chief Executive Marius Kloppers said in a statement
- It will be tough for the world’s largest miner to chase other major buys, given its size and dominance in most of its markets. Analysts said BHP may look at takeovers in the petroleum sector since it is only a mid-sized player in that industry and would be less likely to run into competition hurdles

Facebook takes on Google and Yahoo in Web messages [Reuters]

- Facebook rolled out an all-in-one messaging service that for the first time allows its half-billion members to communicate with people outside the social network, intensifying a battle with Google Inc and Yahoo Inc for users’ Internet time
- The new feature — to be rolled out over coming months — lets users send and receive instant and text messages in addition to standard email and Facebook notes. “This is not an email killer. This is a messaging system that includes email as one part of it,” Zuckerberg told reporters at the St. Regis hotel in San Francisco
- Analysts say that email users are particularly valuable to Web portals like Yahoo, which seek to funnel the traffic into their other online services. Facebook and Google’s intensifying rivalry is expected to play a crucial role in shaping the future of the Internet. The industry is closely watching their pitched struggle for Web surfers’ time online, advertising dollars, and increasingly costly Silicon Valley talent

Photograph by REUTERS/Mohammed Salem


Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba at the center of the Grand mosque in Mecca during the annual Hajj pilgrimage November 11, 2010.


via The Big Picture: Haji 2010

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