Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/169762247?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Source: Havelange resigns from IOC
FILE - In this Aug. 7, 1997 file photo, FIFA president Joao Havelange speaks at a press conference in Rio De Janeiro. The Associated Press has learned that longtime Brazilian member Joao Havelange has resigned by letter Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, from the IOC, just days before facing suspension in a corruption case stemming from his days as president of FIFA. (AP Photo/Renzo Gostoli, File )
FILE - In this Aug. 7, 1997 file photo, FIFA president Joao Havelange speaks at a press conference in Rio De Janeiro. The Associated Press has learned that longtime Brazilian member Joao Havelange has resigned by letter Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, from the IOC, just days before facing suspension in a corruption case stemming from his days as president of FIFA. (AP Photo/Renzo Gostoli, File )
FILE - In this Oct. 2, 2009 file photo, Joao Havelange, the former FIFA President, is embraced by Rio 2016 bid president Carlos Arthur Nuzman, right, during the Rio 2016 bid presentation at the 121st International Olympic Committee session at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. The Associated Press has learned that longtime Brazilian member Joao Havelange has resigned by letter Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, from the IOC, just days before facing suspension in a corruption case stemming from his days as president of FIFA. (AP Photo/Claus Bjoern Larsen, Polfoto, file) DENMARK OUT
LONDON (AP) ? Former FIFA President Joao Havelange has resigned from the IOC, just days before the longtime Brazilian member faced suspension from the Olympic body in a decade-old kickback scandal stemming from his days as the head of world soccer, The Associated Press has learned.
The 95-year-old Havelange ? the IOC's longest-serving member with 48 years of service ? submitted his resignation in a letter Thursday night, according to a person familiar with the case. The person spoke to the AP on Sunday on condition of anonymity because Havelange's decision has been kept confidential.
The move came a few days before the International Olympic Committee's ethics commission was due to recommend heavy sanctions against Havelange in the case involving FIFA's former marketing agency ISL.
Havelange, an IOC member since 1963, has been under investigation by the ethics commission for allegedly receiving a $1 million payment from ISL. Two other IOC members, IAAF President Lamine Diack and African soccer official Issa Hayatou, are also under investigation but face much lesser penalties.
A two-year suspension, or even possible expulsion, for Havelange was expected to be considered at Thursday's IOC executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. With his resignation, the ethics case against him is expected to be dropped.
Havelange, a former Olympic swimmer and water polo player, served as FIFA president for 24 years before being succeeded by Sepp Blatter in 1998. He remains honorary president of FIFA.
The ethics case stems from a BBC documentary last year into kickbacks allegedly paid by ISL, which owned World Cup television rights and collapsed with debts of $300 million in 2001.
Citing Swiss court documents, the BBC's Panorama program alleged that Havelange took a $1 million payment from ISL. Hayatou and Diack, who were not IOC members at the time of the scandal, were also identified as receiving money.
The ISL case was the subject of a Swiss criminal trial in 2008. FIFA has blocked the court in Zug from revealing which officials repaid $6.1 million in kickbacks. The officials repaid the money on condition that their identities remained anonymous.
Ricardo Teixeira, Havelange's former son-in-law and head of Brazil's 2014 World Cup organizing committee, was also identified by the BBC as having received payments. Teixeira is not an IOC member. Brazilian federal authorities are seeking the Swiss documents to investigate possible money laundering.
Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported Saturday that Havelange was "expected" to resign from the IOC before the ethics commission ruling.
Blatter, who is also an IOC member, said in October that FIFA's executive committee would "reopen" the ISL dossier at a Dec. 16-17 meeting in Tokyo as part of a promised drive toward transparency and zero tolerance of corruption.
Hayatou and Diack face likely warnings or reprimands ? not formal suspensions ? from the IOC for conflict of interest violations in the ISL affair.
Hayatou, an IOC member since 2001 and Africa's top soccer official, reportedly received about $20,000 from ISL in 1995. He has denied any corruption and said the money was a gift for his confederation.
Diack said he received money after his house in Senegal burned down in 1993. Diack, who was not an IOC member at the time, has said he did nothing wrong and is confident of being cleared.
The ethics commission will make recommendations to the executive board, which will impose any sanctions.
Havelange is the first member to resign from the Olympic body in an ethics case since former IOC vice president Kim Un-yong of South Korea stepped down in 2005 rather than face expulsion. Kim had been previously suspended in connection with corruption charges in South Korea.
IOC President Jacques Rogge, elected in 2001, has pursued a tough line against any ethics violations.
Ruben Acosta, the former president of the international volleyball federation, resigned from the IOC in 2004, two days before the ethics commission was due to recommend his possible expulsion for alleged misuse of Olympic funds.
Four IOC members resigned in 1999 after being implicated in the Salt Lake City bid scandal. Six others were expelled for accepting cash, gifts, scholarships and other improper benefits during Salt Lake's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
Bulgarian member Ivan Slavkov was expelled in 2005 for alleged Olympic corruption. Indonesia's Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, who was jailed in a scam involving a forest-mapping project in the 1990s, was kicked out in 2004.
Since the Salt Lake scandal, the IOC enacted a series of reforms, including establishment of the ethics commission, tighter anti-corruption rules and a ban on member visits to bid cities.
___
AP Sports Writers Tales Azzoni in Sao Paolo and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
News Alert: What's behind Israel and America's dealings in East Africa?
Africa Today-11-29-2011
Israel has identified eastern Africa as an important strategic interest and is stepping up ties with nations in the region in a joint effort to control the spread of Islamic extremists, officials said Thursday.
In effect, Israel would become a player siding with Christian-led African nations in conflicts with Muslim movements, a fault line that has sharpened around the continent in recent years.
Israeli moves come as the United States as well has hiked up military support for African governments, in large part to combat al-Qaida-linked groups.
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hosted the leaders of Uganda and Kenya earlier this week, following a meeting at the United Nations in September with the president of the newly liberated South Sudan, the mainly Christian and animist nation that gained independence from Muslim Arab-led Sudan in July.
The outcome of the meetings - and the extent of Israel's moves to ally with the Africans - remains murky. Kenya's leader went so far as to say Israel promised to provide security assistance to his country to help protect its borders Israeli officials say such claims are premature, but say an alliance with Kenya and other eastern African countries is natural.
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Amid fire scare, GM willing to buy back Volts
NEW YORK?? General Motors will buy Chevrolet Volts back from any owner who is afraid the electric cars will catch fire, the company's CEO said Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, CEO Dan Akerson insisted that the cars are safe, but said the company will purchase the Volts because it wants to keep customers happy. Three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests done by the federal government.
Akerson said that if necessary, GM will recall the more than 6,000 Volts now on the road in the U.S. and repair them once the company and federal safety regulators figure out what caused the fires.
"If we find that is the solution, we will retrofit every one of them," Akerson said. "We'll make it right."
The fires happened seven days to three weeks after tests performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And GM has said there's no threat of fires immediately after crashes. GM also has said that no Volts involved in real-world crashes have caught fire.
Still, NHTSA has opened an investigation into the fires and has asked other companies that make electric cars for battery testing data. NHTSA said the safety testing hasn't raised concerns about electric vehicles other than the Volt.
"The fire broke out seven days later. Not seven minutes. Not seven seconds," Akerson said, adding that the company wants to fix the problem so people continue to have faith in Volts and other advanced technology cars. The company is notified of any Volt crash through its OnStar safety system and dispatches a team with 48 hours to drain the battery, preventing fires, he said.
"I think in the interest of General Motors, the industry, the electrification of the car, it's best to get it right now than when you have ? instead of 6,000 ? 60,000 or 600,000 cars on the road," he said.
The NHTSA testing, Akerson said, intruded into the Volt's battery pack by four to five inches, beyond the normal testing standard of about two inches. Then the cars were rotated 360 degrees to simulate a rollover crash. He said anytime there's a new technology introduced like the Volt, problems will arise. GM is dedicated to fixing them.
He conceded that the fires may cause some potential buyers to shy away from the Volt. But he added that GM is trying to get the message out that they happened only after extreme tests. Akerson also stressed that standard gas engine cars also have problems with fires after crashes.
The Volt can go about 35 miles on battery power before a small gasoline generator kicks in to keep the car running. The car can be recharged with a standard home electrical outlet.
The Nissan Leaf, a fully electric car and the Volt's main competitor, has not had any similar fires after crash tests or real-world crashes, Nissan said.
The Leaf battery is cooled by air rather than a liquid used to cool the Volt battery.
Akerson said investigators are looking at spilled coolant as one possible cause of the fires, although he said the coolant itself did not catch fire. Investigators are looking at everything from circuit boards to the way the battery cells are packaged into the Volt's larger T-shaped battery pack, he said.
Investigators have some promising leads but no conclusions yet, Akerson said.
GM doesn't expect many Volt owners to return their cars, given feedback from customers thus far, said spokesman Rob Peterson.
Earlier this week GM offered loaner cars to all Volt owners until the cause of the fires is found and fixed. So far, Akerson said 16 Volt owners have inquired and only two have taken the loaners.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45513095/ns/business-autos/
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Bridgestone Airless Tire Resembles Psychedelic Spirograph Sketch
Changing a tire at the side of the road is no big deal (you know that the tire-iron is for removing the wheel-nuts and not just for self defense, right?), but suffering a blowout on the freeway isn’t any fun at all. Bridgestone’s new airless tires fix both problems.
The concept design uses thermoplastic “spokes” which [...]
The concept design uses thermoplastic “spokes” which [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/cFLgSj6DyHY/
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Merkel: Financial crisis solution to 'take years' (AP)
BERLIN ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel flatly rejected any quick-fix ideas to try to resolve the European financial crisis, telling lawmakers Friday that treaty changes and stricter controls were the only path forward ? and that the process could take years.
Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are pushing for a reorganization of existing European Union regulations, which they is needed to prevent the eurozone from breaking apart.
In laying out to the lower house of Parliament plans she will take to a Dec. 9 EU summit in Brussels, Merkel insisted the 17 nations who use the euro currency need to take measures to restore market confidence. She added that eurozone financial regulations had been violated too frequently.
"The German government has made it clear that the European crisis will not be solved in one fell swoop..." she said. "It's a process, and this process will take years."
She reiterated her objection to so-called eurobonds, telling Parliament that jointly backed government debt across the eurozone is no solution.
The discussion about eurobonds "does not contribute to the resolution of the crisis," she said. Instead, she said, the eurozone needs a new "stability union" with stronger fiscal controls and debt regulations.
The German leader said her goal, together with Sarkozy's, is to change European treaties "to avoid a splitting of the eurozone and non-eurozone members," through a strengthening of EU institutions.
Sarkozy called Thursday for "refounding and rethinking the organization of Europe."
___
Associated Press Writers David Rising and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.
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Friday, December 2, 2011
GOP: Offsetting cuts must cover payroll tax relief (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Any extension of this year's payroll tax cut must be paid for with savings from elsewhere in the budget, House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday.
Boehner's comment meant that House and Senate Republicans are united in demanding that any eventual measure, which could cost over $100 billion, not add to the federal deficit. It also suggested that President Barack Obama and Congress would have to find mutually acceptable savings before any extension could become law.
The current tax cut expires Jan. 1.
Republicans have previously expressed a willingness to try compromising with Obama on ways to create jobs, including renewing the payroll tax cut. But Boehner stopped short of predicting that the two sides will reach agreement on extending this year's 2 percent reduction in the 6.2 percent payroll tax that workers pay or enlarging it, as Obama and many Democrats want.
"If in fact we can find common ground on these extensions, I think you can take to the bank the fact that they will be paid for," Boehner told reporters.
Mirroring Obama's proposal, Senate Democrats have introduced symbolic legislation extending the reduction for another year and enlarging it to 3.1 percent.
It faces certain defeat because Republicans oppose the way Democrats would pay for it: A permanent 3.25 percent surtax on incomes exceeding $1 million beginning in 2013.
The Democratic bill would also halve the 6.2 percent payroll tax that employers pay on their first $5 million of payroll costs next year. In an effort to encourage hiring, they would also completely eliminate the levy on some payroll increases this year and next.
Obama's proposal for 2012 would cost an estimated $265 billion. This year's narrower payroll tax reduction cost an estimated $112 billion.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that Republicans favor simply extending this year's 2 percent tax cut for workers for another year. Senate Republicans are expected to announce Wednesday how they would pay for it.
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