Current Events Around the Globe – March 9, 2011

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


Libyans ‘will fight’ no-fly zone [BBC News]

- Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has said his people will take up arms if a no-fly zone is imposed by Western nations or the UN, as many of the rebels have been calling for. In an interview with Turkish TV, he said a no-fly zone would show the true intention was to seize Libya’s oil. Meanwhile, pro-Gaddafi forces shelled Zawiya’s suburbs and tried to gain control of the main square. The US has said any decision on a no-fly zone over Libya rests with the UN
- More than 1,000 people are believed to have died since rebels began their uprising nearly three weeks ago to end Col Gaddafi’s 41 years in power. About 212,000 people – most of them migrant workers – have fled the country, the UN estimates. The Libyan leader also made a speech broadcast on state TV in the early hours of Wednesday morning, in which he said European governments and al-Qaeda were trying to divide the country
- A no-fly zone would probably ban military flights by government forces through Libyan airspace. Any aircraft violating the exclusion zone would risk being shot down by international forces. No-fly zones were imposed on southern and northern Iraq in the wake of the first Gulf war in 1991, and during the war in Bosnia in 1994-95. The UK and France are working on a UN Security Council resolution for a no-fly zone; however, Russia has already stated its opposition to military intervention

Galleon US insider trading trial begins [BBC News]

- Jury selection in the long-awaited trial of billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam on charges of insider trading has begun in New York. He has been free on bail of $100m. If found guilty, he could face more than 20 years in jail. Judge Holwell said he expected opening statements to take place on Wednesday
- The New York federal prosecutor has described the case as the “largest hedge fund insider trading case in history”. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in its complaint filed earlier this year that the case involved “widespread and repeated insider trading” at a number of hedge funds, including Galleon. Incidents cited in court documents describe the passing of information on takeovers or company results before they were publicly released
- Rajaratnam then traded on that information, often on behalf of Galleon, the SEC alleges. Rajaratnam founded the Galleon Group hedge fund, which managed about $7bn at the time of his arrest. His personal wealth has been estimated at about $1.3bn. More than a dozen people, including employees of some of America’s biggest companies, including IBM and Intel, have been criminally or civilly charged in the complex case. So far 19 have pleaded guilty

World’s first tissue-engineered urethras hailed success [BBC News]

- The world’s first tissue-engineered urinary tubes or urethras, grown in the lab using patients’ own cells, have been hailed a success by medical experts. US surgeons have used the lab-grown tubes to treat five Mexican boys with damaged urinary tracts. They told the Lancet that all of the boys are now fit and that the grafts have taken and repaired the defects. The same team has already managed to grow new bladders for patients
- The same team has already managed to grow new bladders for patients. The first step in engineering the replacement urethras was taking a small sample of cells from the bladder of each of the boys. Aged 10 to 14, the boys had suffered injuries in accidents. From these samples, the scientists isolated the cells they would need to grow the new structure that expels urine from the bladder
- Six years on the grafts are still doing well, looking and functioning exactly like a normal urethra in the five boys who are now entering their teens. Without this revolutionary treatment they boys would have required an artificial graft that has up to a 50% chance of failure, or would have faced a life of probably incontinence and repeated urine infections

Deadly attack at Pakistan funeral procession [BBC News]

- At least 36 people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a funeral procession in north-western Pakistan. Officials said the funeral was for the wife of a pro-government ethnic Pashtun tribal elder in Adezai village in the troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It was being attended by many anti-Taliban militiamen in the region. At least 40 people were wounded. Several anti-Taliban tribal groups are based in the area and they are often targeted by the insurgents
- Adezai, located in the Mattani area, has been the centre of a tribal anti-Taliban force raised with the government support. Until recently, the tribal anti-Taliban force had been conducting night patrols to discourage Taliban attacks but it ended some weeks ago as the government’s supply of arms and ammunition to the members of the force dwindled
- The attack comes a day after at least 26 people were killed and more than 120 injured in a car bomb explosion at a gas station in the industrial city of Faisalabad. The Taliban said they were behind Tuesday’s attack. Most markets in the city were shut on Wednesday as residents mourned the dead

Ivory Coast: Anti-Gbagbo protesters killed in Abidjan [BBC News]

- Four people have been shot dead in Ivory Coast’s main city, Abidjan, after a march to protest about the killing of seven female demonstrators last week. Journalists have seen the bodies of three men and a woman in clinic. The shooting has been blamed on rogue army officers supporting disputed President Laurent Gbagbo. He refuses to cede power although his rival Alassane Ouattara is internationally recognised as the winner of last year’s poll
- Ivory Coast is the world’s biggest cocoa producer – the cocoa sector accounts for 40% of global supplies and is currently dominated by multinational companies. Some 300,000 people have fled their homes in Abidjan following fighting in the city in recent weeks, according to the UN refugee agency. Another 70,000 have fled violence in the west, seeking sanctuary across the border in Liberia
- The price of cocoa has been trading at its highest levels for a year. The European Union, US and West African states have adopted various financial sanctions against Mr Gbagbo and his closest allies. Exporters have stopped registering new beans for export – as a result, there is close 500,000 tonnes of cocoa piling up in port warehouses. Up country, the market has collapsed for the estimated 700,000 small holder cocoa farmers

Yemeni police fire on protest, 65 hurt: hospital [Reuters]

- Yemeni police opened fire on protesters in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday, wounding at least 65 people demonstrating for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year-old rule, hospital sources said. Six of the wounded were in a serious condition, they said. Policemen and security agents in civilian clothes opened fire as they tried to prevent people from joining thousands of protesters who have camped out for weeks in front of Sanaa University
- Earlier police brought out water cannon and placed concrete blocks around Sanaa University, after weeks of fierce clashes across the country between government loyalists and protesters that killed at least 27 people. Around 10,000 protesters marched in the city of Dhamar, 60 km (40 miles) south of Sanaa, residents said by telephone. Dhamar is known for ties to Saleh and is the hometown of Yemen’s prime minister, interior minister and head judge
- Yemen, neighbor to oil giant Saudi Arabia, was teetering on the brink of failed statehood even before recent protests. Saleh has struggled to cement a truce with Shi’ite Muslim rebels in the north and curb secessionist rebellion in the south, all the while fighting al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing. Some 40% of Yemen’s 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger

Bill Gates’ philanthropy costs him richest-man title [Reuters]

- Bill Gates didn’t lose his title as the world’s richest man last year; he gave it away by plowing billions into his charitable foundation, experts say. Forbes will release its 2011 billionaires list on Wednesday and Gates, investor Warren Buffett and last year’s richest man, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, will almost certainly be in the top three. The trio have topped the list for the past five years
- Gates is currently worth about $49 billion, behind Slim, whose fortune he estimated at $60 billion. Buffett, also a philanthropist, is now worth some $47 billion. Gates and his wife Melinda have so far given $28 billion to their foundation, the largest in the United States. Forbes’ 2010 billionaires list put Gates’ fortune at $53 billion, but he was knocked into second spot by Slim’s $53.5 billion, losing the crown for only the second time since 1995
- Buffett, who Forbes ranked as the third richest man in the world last year with $47 billion, has also pledged almost all of his fortune to the Gates Foundation and has given $8 billion to the organization since 2006. Gates and Buffett have joined forces to encourage other billionaires to publicly pledge to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth during their lifetimes or upon their death as part of a campaign called The Giving Pledge. So far 59 billionaires have joined The Giving Pledge

LVMH bags jeweller Bulgari in $5.2 billion deal [Reuters]

- French luxury group LVMH is buying Italian peer Bulgari for $5.2 billion, adding luster to its jewelry business and broadening its exposure to emerging markets. The offer, at a 60% premium to Bulgari’s average share price over the past month, could herald the return of consolidation in the luxury market, which bounced back from the 2009 slump much faster than analysts expected
- Bulgari will benefit from world No. 1 LVMH’s global retail network, improve margins through cost-sharing and help the owner of Louis Vuitton handbags close the gap with bigger watch and jewelry companies Richemont and Swatch. Spearheaded by Arnault, LVMH was built on acquisitions and its brands also include Chaumet and Fred jewelry, Celine and Kenzo fashion, Hennessy cognac and Moet & Chandon champagne
- Analysts believe the deal could lead rival groups to embark on a fresh consoldation wave, encouraged by the strong sales visibility they are getting from big emerging luxury markets such as China. Bulgari, established in 1884, had long been seen as a potential target having weakened its finances by embarking on big store investments when its sales were falling

Boeing wins $10 billion deal from Chinese airlines [Reuters]

- Boeing Co sealed deals worth $10 billion with two airlines in China, the world’s fastest growing market, which is likely to buy more than 2,000 aircraft over the next five years. China expects to order 1,100 new transport aircraft and 1,000 general aviation aircraft, Wang Changshun, vice minister of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said
- Last-minute orders for 200 planes in December pushed EADS (EAD.PA) subsidiary Airbus past its U.S. rival for a third year. Both aircraft makers are flying high on demand from emerging economies and low-cost airlines and a shift toward less fuel-thirsty jets. As air travel becomes more popular among China’s increasingly wealthy population, Chinese airlines are keen to expand fleets to compete with players such as Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific
- Boeing now has half of China’s market share, with the rest mainly supplied by Airbus. Asia-Pacific demand for aircraft will likely form a significant portion of the demand from global airlines, which Boeing said would need 30,900 new passenger and freighter aircraft by 2030, valued at $3.6 trillion

Photograph by Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

A woman fleeing ongoing violence in the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan covers her nose and mouth with her scarf as she walks out of the district past heaps of rotting trash on Feb. 27. Since the start of the political crisis three months ago, trash has been piling up around the city.

via The Big Picture: Ivory Coast – Fears of a civil war intensify