Portugal budget deficit leaps to 6.4%

PORTUGAL'S 2012 budget deficit leapt to 6.4 per cent of the nation's total output, from 4.4 per cent one year earlier as the heavily indebted eurozone member struggles to raise revenues and cut spending amid recession and soaring unemployment, national statistics institute Ine says.

The figure, calculated according to standards used by the EU's statistics office Eurostat, did not include revenue from the sale of a state holding in the Portuguese airport operator however, and therefore far exceeded the five per cent target set by the government and its international creditors, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.

They granted a financial rescue package worth 78 billion euros ($A96 billion) in May 2011.

Portugal's public debt rose to 204.4 billion euros meanwhile, equivalent to 123.6 per cent of gross domestic product last year, from 108.3 per cent of GDP in 2011, the Ine data showed.

EU countries are not supposed to run deficits of more than three per cent of GDP, and are expected to keep debt to no more than 60 per cent of GDP.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said Eurostat had rejected a request to use proceeds from the sale of airport operator ANA-Aeroportos de Portugal to cut the deficit. Had that had been allowed, it would have met the 2012 target at 4.9 per cent of GDP, Gaspar said.

The country managed to reduce the number to 4.4 per cent in 2011 through an exceptional measure that consisted of transferring funds set aside by banks for their staff pension funds to public coffers.

Despite boosting taxes and cutting public wages since the EU-IMF bailout, Portugal has struggled to cut the deficit.

But in light of a deteriorating economic situation, climbing unemployment and widespread public protests against austerity measures, Lisbon has been granted an extra year to bring the deficit in line with EU regulations.

23.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

US 4th quarter growth faster than thought

US economic growth in the fourth quarter was faster than originally thought at 0.4 per cent, the Department of Commerce says in its final revision of the estimate.

The previous estimate had the economy basically flat, expanding at a 0.1 per cent annual pace.

The new data said that non-residential fixed investment was higher than previously expected.

However, the department added, growth was still sluggish and "the revision to GDP has not changed the general picture of the economy".

23.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

BlackBerry back in profit, sells 1m Z10s

RESEARCH In Motion says it sold about one million of its critically important new BlackBerry 10 devices and surprised Wall Street by returning to profitability in the most recent quarter.

The earnings provide a first glimpse of how RIM's new touch-screen BlackBerry Z10 is selling internationally and in Canada since its debut on January 31.

The one million Z10 phones exceeded the 915,000 analysts had been expecting.

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, had been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other consumers before the iPhone debuted in 2007 and showed that phones can handle much more than email and phone calls.

RIM faced numerous delays modernising its operating system with the BlackBerry 10. During that time, it had to cut more than 5000 jobs and saw shareholder wealth decline by more than $US70 billion ($A67 billion).

In the quarter that ended March 2, RIM earned $US98 million, or 19 US cents a share, compared with a loss of $US125 million, or 24 US cents a share, a year earlier. After adjusting for restructuring and other one-time items, RIM earned 22 US cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting a loss of 31 US cents.

Revenue fell 36 per cent to $US2.7 billion, from $US4.2 billion. Analysts had expected $US2.82 billion.

Despite the BlackBerry 10 sales, RIM lost about three million subscribers to end the quarter with 76 million.

Bill Kreyer, a tech analyst for Edward Jones, called the decline "pretty alarming".

"This is going to take a couple of quarters to really see how they are doing," Kreyer said.

RIM, which is changing is formal name to BlackBerry, said it expects to break even in the current quarter.

"To say it was a very challenging environment to deliver improved financial results could well be the understatement of the year," chief executive Thorsten Heins said during a conference call with analysts on Thursday.

"I thought they were dead. This is a huge turnaround," Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said from New York.

Misek said the Canadian company "demolished" the numbers, especially its gross margins. RIM reported gross margins of 40 per cent, up from 34 per cent a year earlier. The company credited higher average selling prices and higher margins for devices.

The company also announced that co-founder Mike Lazaridis will retire as vice-chairman and director.

23.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

US stocks higher as Cyprus reopens banks

US stocks have pushed higher in early trade after banks in Cyprus reopened without major incident and Europe's markets gained on buoyant German retail sales data.

Five minutes into trade on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 30.11 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 14,556.27.

The broad-based S&P 500 increased 1.83 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 1,564.68.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 2.51 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 3,259.03.

Cyprus's banks reopened with capital controls and long lines but no major turmoil, said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

"It is a long way from business as usual, but the successful reopening combined with a better-than-expected retail sales report out of Germany has helped lift European equity markets," O'Hare said.

US economic data was mixed. The Commerce Department increased the fourth-quarter growth estimate to 0.4 per cent from 0.1 per cent previously.

But a report of weekly jobless claims rose 16,000 to 357,000.

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Man to face Sydney court over cocaine

A MAN will face court charged with drug offences after more than two kilograms of cocaine was found at a house on Sydney's northern beaches.

Police from the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad arrested the man, 51, on Thursday after searching a residence at Freshwater last Wednesday.

Inside the house police found 2.5kg of cocaine with an estimated street value of about $750,000, as well as $12,000 cash and drug paraphernalia.

The man, from Freshwater, was charged with supply prohibited drug greater than a large commercial quantity, and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Police said he was arrested after walking into Dee Why police station on Thursday afternoon.

He was refused bail and is due to face Parramatta Local Court on Friday.

23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

William tells TV show of 'calling'

THE Duke of Cambridge has spoken of his "calling" to save lives as a helicopter pilot in a TV documentary to be screened next month.

In an interview for the BBC program, Helicopter Rescue, which features footage of William in action as a search and rescue captain, he says: "There's no greater feeling than when you've actually done some good and saved someone's life.

"I don't think there's any greater calling in life ... to be able to see a son or daughter's face when you bring their mother or father back from the edge of death - it's quite powerful."

In one rescue in the four-part series, the duke captains an aircraft called to save a boy who has fallen off an old railway bridge and on to rocks.

He describes his role once the call comes in: "As captain, you're trying to play out the entire rescue, the transit to the rescue and back again in your mind, and pick up any circumstances or problems you can foresee, and try and fix them on the ground before you get airborne."

The program will be the first to show extensive footage of the duke's work as a search and rescue pilot, a BBC spokesman said.

William - known in the Air Force as Flight Lieutenant Wales - has been serving with the C Flight, 22 Squadron at RAF Valley on Anglesey since 2010.

He qualified as an operational search and rescue captain last year and now has a full-time job - albeit with time off for royal duties - rescuing stranded climbers and stricken vessels on emergency missions in Sea King helicopters.

The series will also show crew members around William on Anglesey, and at Royal Marines Base Chivenor in Devon.

23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Newtown gunman's weapons arsenal revealed

DETECTIVES searching the Newtown school shooter's house found he and his mother kept a startlingly large arsenal of rifles, pistols and other weapons, including swords, newly released details show.

The results of search warrants executed after the Newtown school massacre were released on Thursday after public pressure for information about the investigation into Adam Lanza's shooting of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.

Parts of the five warrants were blacked out by prosecutors and the information that remained gave little new insight into Lanza's motivation for the bloodbath, which began with the 20-year-old shooting his mother in the head and ended when he shot himself.

Although detectives list Lanza's journal and other documents among evidence seized, nothing about the contents is revealed.

However, the warrants show that Lanza, an academically gifted, but mentally troubled man, and his middle-class mother Nancy Lanza, kept a huge collection of weapons at home in their affluent Newtown neighbourhood.

The warrants note that Lanza burst into the elementary school with a Bushmaster military-style rifle carrying a 30-round magazine. He ended his own life, as police responded to the massacre, with a Glock 10mm handgun. He was also carrying a loaded 9mm Sig Sauer handgun and a loaded 12-gauge shotgun was found in the car he used to get to the school.

However, that was only the beginning of the mother-and-son weapons collection.

In their home, the search warrants reveal, there were multiple firearms and boxes of ammunition, including Winchester rifle rounds, an Enfield bolt-action rifle and a Luger pistol. There were also three Samurai swords, a bayonet, and a long "pole with a blade on one side and a spear on the opposite side".

The search warrants also list numerous documents that are likely to be under close scrutiny. They include Adam Lanza's "journal", and a multitude of computer equipment and violent video games, such as Call of Duty.

In addition, according to one warrant, "investigators also noted a smashed computer hard drive on top of a desk in what is believed to be Adam Lanza's bedroom".

23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More