Category: Business

Visit to Turkey opened new avenues of cooperation: Shahbaz

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that service to the masses is a form of worship and a comprehensive programme of public welfare and rapid development of the province is being pursued.

Talking to the MPAs belonging to various districts here on Sunday, he said protection of life and property was the foremost priority of the Punjab government and all possible steps would be taken for further improving law and order in the province.

Shahbaz said every effort was directed towards the progress of the country and it would put on the road to prosperity after being taken out of the current crises under the leadership of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. He said corruption had shaken the foundations of the country and every person would have to play his role for purging the society of the menace. He said merit, good governance and transparency had been promoted in the province and the development projects of present era were unprecedented regarding quality and transparency.

The chief minister said the transparent utilisation of every penny of the public money was being ensured and all resources were being utilized for the public welfare. He said the credit for materialising the dream of labourers, farmers, widows, martyrs and a common man of having their own shelter went to the PML-N, which, for the first time in the history of the country, had provided facilities to the poor in Ashiana Housing Scheme more than the residential schemes of the elite.

Shahbaz said steps were being taken for the provision of quality and comfortable transport facilities to the people. He said that after the provincial metropolis, a plan had also been made for extending the scope of Ashiana scheme to other big cities of the province.

Mentioning his visit to Turkey, Shahbaz said that besides accelerating the pace of implementation on various agreements, his visit had also helped seek new avenues of cooperation with Turkey in other sectors. He said the way Turkey had made progress rapidly and had become a strong economic force was a role model for Pakistan, adding that we could also put our country on the road to progress by working hard.

The CM said Allah had given rich resources to Pakistan and we could not only achieve self-reliance by developing them but also get rid the menace of charity of foreingers. He stressed upon the elected representatives to spare no effort for ensuring transparent and timely completion of welfare projects.

via Visit to Turkey opened new avenues of cooperation: Shahbaz.

January 9, 2012
Obama: the US can no longer fight the world’s battles

President plans to cut half a million troops and says US can’t afford to wage two wars at once
The mighty American military machine that has for so long secured the country’s status as the world’s only superpower will have to be drastically reduced, Barack Obama warned yesterday as he set out a radical but more modest new set of priorities for the Pentagon over the next decade.

After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that defined the first decade of the 21st century, Mr Obama’s blueprint for the military’s future acknowledged that America will no longer have the resources to conduct two such major operations simultaneously.

Instead, the US military will lose up to half a million troops and will focus on countering terrorism and meeting the new challenges of an emergent Asia dominated by China. America, the President said, was “turning the page on a decade of war” and now faced “a moment of transition”. The country’s armed forces would in future be leaner but, Mr Obama pointedly warned both friends and foes, sufficient to preserve US military superiority over any rival – “agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats”.

The wider significance of America’s landmark strategic change was underlined by British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, who used a visit to Washington to warn that America must not delay the production of US warplanes bound for British aircraft carriers. The US strategy is expected to make a drawdown of some of the 80,000 troops based in Europe.

“We have to look at the relationship with Americans in a slightly different light,” Mr Hammond told Channel 4 News. “Europeans have to respond to this change in American focus, not with a fit of pique but by pragmatic engagement, recognising that we have to work with Americans to get better value for money.”

But there is little doubt that Europe will be a much-reduced priority under the new scheme. The blueprint’s status as the president’s own property, after a first three years in office dominated by wars he had inherited from his predecessor, was underlined by his rare personal appearance at the Pentagon flanked by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and other top uniformed officials.

Henceforth, Mr Obama underlined, the priorities would be maintaining a robust nuclear deterrent, confronting terrorism and protecting the US homeland, and deterring and defeating any potential adversary. To these ends, the US will also boost its cyberwarfare and missile defence capabilities.

At the same time, iIf all goes to plan, the centre of gravity of the US defence effort will shift eastwards, away from Europe and the Middle East. The focus will be on Asia and – both he and Mr Panetta made abundantly clear without specifically saying so – in particular on an increasingly assertive China, already an economic superpower and well on the way to becoming a military one as well.

The specifics of the new proposals, set out in a document entitled “Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense”, have yet to be fleshed out. But they are likely to entail a reduction of up to 490,000 in a total military personnel now standing at some 1.6 million worldwide, as well as cuts in costly procurement programmes – some originally designed for a Cold War environment.

The “Obama Doctrine” reflects three basic realities. First, the long post-9/11 wars are finally drawing to a close. The last US troops have already left Iraq, while American combat forces are due to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 (though a limited number may stay on as trainers and advisers).

Second, and as the President stressed in a major speech during his recent visit to Australia, America’s national interest is increasingly bound up with Asia, the world’s economic powerhouse, and where many countries are keen for a greater US commitment as a counterweight to China.

Third, and most important, are the domestic financial facts of life, at a moment when government spending on every front is under pressure. For years the Pentagon has been exempt – but no longer, as efforts multiply to rein in soaring federal budget deficits.

At $662bn, Pentagon spending for fiscal 2013 will exceed the next 10 largest national defence budgets on the planet combined. Even so, that sum is $27bn less than what President Obama wanted, and $43bn less than the 2012 budget.

www.independent.co.uk, 06 JANUARY 2012

January 9, 2012
Jobseekers from Greece try chances in Istanbul

Erdem Güneş / ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

The peaceful atmosphere between Turkey and Greece is a major factor in Greeks choosing to seek employment in Turkey, according to Assistant Professor Dimitris Triantaphyllou who came to Istanbul from Athens last year

Homeless people sit at tables during a New Year’s meal in Athens Jan 1. Greek jobseekers are looking for work in cities like Istanbul. This happens during hard times, like the emigration process after the World War II, says Triantaphyllou. REUTERS photo

Turkey – especially Istanbul – stands out as a popular destination for Greeks seeking jobs abroad as Greece suffers a major economic crisis.

In spite of accusations of “betrayal” by ultra-nationalist Greeks, rapprochement between Turkey and Greece is resulting in increased political, economic and social benefits for both sides, Assistant Professor Dimitris Triantaphyllou, Director of the Center for International and European Studies (CIES) at Kadir Has University, told the Daily News.

Some 1.2 million people, nearly 10 percent of the population, emigrated from Greece last year, according to recently published statistics in the World Bank’s “The Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011.”

Triantaphyllou, who came from Athens to Istanbul more than a year ago before Greece was hit hard by the economic crisis, said not only single, educated, young people were leaving Greece, but even some families had begun to emigrate.

“This happens during hard times, like the emigration process after the Second World War,” he said.

According to Triantaphyllou the peaceful atmosphere between the neighboring countries, for which he gave credit to late İsmail Cem and Georgios Papandreou, is a major factor in Greeks’ preference of coming to Turkey.

Psychologist Odysseas Voutsinas moved from Athens to Istanbul last month. Voutsinas was born in Istanbul in 1964 and studied at the Özel Fener Rum Erkek Lisesi before moving to Athens with his family. In the 1960s Turkish-Greek relations were strained over the Cyprus issue, so many Greeks left the country because of the high tension.

Voutsinas studied social services and psychology in the University of Athens and worked in Greece for 30 years, but he said that he always had the idea of “returning” on his mind.

‘Hard to leave, hard to come back’

Last year he decided to come back. “It was hard to leave Turkey, but it was hard to come back too. The crisis in Greece was maybe a chance for the ones who wanted to come back to Istanbul.”

Voutsinas said the patriarchate and the Greek community welcomed the newcomers just like the locals did.

Fouli Koti, 25, came to Istanbul three months ago from Thessaloniki. “I am afraid that the Greek economy is going to get worse. My friends also do not have hope for the near future. They want to leave as well,” she said.

Koti was working as a manager for a Vodafone franchise store in Thessaloniki. She said that one year ago there were more than 30 stores, but only two remain open in the city. She decided to come to Turkey after a call from her childhood friend Apostolos, who had been living in Istanbul for one year. Koti moved to Istanbul and began working in the customer service department of an international oil company.

“I wanted to take a risk and have a ‘Turkey adventure,’ but I must say I am disappointed in some ways,” she said. “I was living in one of the most popular districts in Thessaloniki and I was paying 340 euros for a big house of my own. Now I live in the central European side of Istanbul and pay the same amount for a small room in a shared house.”

January/09/2012

via LABOR – Jobseekers from Greece try chances in Istanbul.

January 9, 2012
Tony Blair and the £8million tax ‘mystery’

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair channelled millions of pounds through a complicated web of companies and paid just a fraction in tax, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Tony Blair channelled millions of pounds through a complicated web of companies. Photo: Getty

By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter

Official accounts show a company set up by Mr Blair to manage his business affairs paid just £315,000 in tax last year on an income of more than £12 million. In that time, he employed 26 staff and paid them total wages of almost £2.3 million.

The accounts provide the strongest evidence yet of the huge sums generated by Mr Blair through his various activities since quitting Downing Street in June 2007.

He runs a business consultancy – Tony Blair Associates – which has deals with the governments of Kuwait and Kazakhstan among others and is a paid adviser to JP Morgan, an American investment bank, and to Zurich International, a global insurance company based in Switzerland. Mr Blair makes a further £100,000 a time from speeches and lectures while also presiding over a number of charities including a faith foundation.

Mr Blair has previously been criticised for cashing in on contacts made in Downing Street and these accounts will likely add to those concerns.

The documents also reveal that in the two years until March 31 last year, Mr Blair’s management company had a total turnover of more than £20 million and paid tax of about £470,000.

The scale of Mr Blair’s finances are shown in accounts lodged by Windrush Ventures Limited, just one of a myriad of companies and partnerships set up by the former prime minister. Windrush Ventures Ltd’s “principal activity” is the “provision of management services” to Mr Blair’s various other interests.

The accounts for the 12 months to March 31 were lodged with Companies House in the week between Christmas and New Year and made publicly available for the first time last week. Previously the accounts have contained almost no information because Windrush was classified as a small company. This time auditors appear to have been obliged to divulge more information because of the amount of money being handled.

The accounts show a turnover of £12.005 million and administrative expenses of £10.919 million, leaving Windrush Ventures with a profit of just over £1 million, on which Mr Blair paid tax of £315,000. The tax was paid at the corporate tax rate of 28 per cent.

Of those expenses, £2.285 million went on paying 26 employees at an average salary of almost £88,000. Windrush Ventures also pays £550,000 a year to rent Mr Blair’s offices in Grosvenor Square, a stone’s throw from the US embassy in Mayfair in central London and a further sum of about £300,000 on office equipment and furniture. But those costs amount to a little more than £3 million, meaning almost £8 million of “administrative expenditure” is unexplained in the accounts.

It is not known from the accounts what happened to that huge sum.

Tax specialists who have studied the accounts have told The Sunday Telegraph that the tax paid in 2010 of £154,000 and £315,000 in 2011 appears low because costs have been offset against the administrative costs, which remain largely unexplained.

One City accountant, who did not wish to be named, said: “It is very difficult to see what these administrative costs could be. It is a very large amount for a business like this. I am sure it is legitimate but it is certainly surprising.

“The tax bill of £315,000 is explained by the large administrative costs that are being treated as tax allowable.”

Richard Murphy, a charted accountant who runs Tax Research LLP and has studied Mr Blair’s company accounts, said: “There is about £8 million which we don’t know where it goes. That money is unexplained. There is no indication at all why the administration costs are so high. What has happened to about £8 million which is being offset against tax?”

There is no suggestion that Mr Blair’s tax affairs are anything other than legitimate. His accounts are audited by KPMG, one of the world’s biggest accountancy firms. Mr Blair presides over 12 different legal entities, handling the millions of pounds he has received since leaving office. Another set of companies, which are run in parallel to Windrush Ventures, are called Firerush Ventures and appear to operate in exactly the same, oblique way.

The money paid into Windrush Ventures Ltd largely comes from Windrush Ventures No. 3 Limited Partnership, which appears to be where money is deposited before being spread around other companies, ultimately in Mr Blair’s ownership. The limited partnership does not have to disclose publicly any accounts allowing its activities to remain secret.

Mr Murphy said last night: “It is in the limited partnership where things really happen. But that is the one Mr Blair keeps secret. We don’t know how much money is in the LP. It is completely hidden. The question is why is Tony Blair running such as a completely secretive organisation?”

A spokesman for Mr Blair said last night: “The Windrush accounts are prepared in accordance with the relevant legal, accounting and regulatory guidance. Tony Blair continues to be a UK taxpayer on all of his income and all of his companies are UK registered for tax purposes.”

The spokesman added that the accounts did not relate to any of Mr Blair’s charitable activities, which raised money separately as independently registered charities.

The spokesman chose not to explain what happened to about £8 million of administrative expenses.

www.telegraph.co.uk, 07 Jan 2012

January 9, 2012
Video: WPP’s Sorrell Says 2013 `Worries’ Him More Than 2012

WPP’s Sorrell Says 2013 `Worries’ Him More Than 2012

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) — Martin Sorrell, chief executive officer of WPP Plc, discusses growth in Turkey and the outlook for the advertising industry. He talks from Istanbul with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television’s “Last Word.” (Source: Bloomberg) (Bloomberg)

via WPP’s Sorrell Says 2013 `Worries’ Him More Than 2012 – The Washington Post.

January 9, 2012
Linguists name ‘occupy’ as 2011’s word of the year

By Stephanie Gallman, CNN

"Occupy" is 2011's word of the year, winning a runoff vote by a whopping majority.

(CNN) — The linguists have spoken and they have decided — “Occupy” is 2011’s word of the year.

Members of the American Dialect Society came out in record numbers to vote Friday night at the organization’s annual conference, held this year in Portland, Oregon.

“Occupy” won a runoff vote by a whopping majority, earning more votes than “FOMO” (an acronym for “Fear of Missing Out,” describing anxiety over being inundated by the information on social media) and “the 99%,” (those held to be at a financial or political disadvantage to the top moneymakers, the one-percenters).

Occupy joins previous year’s winners, “app,” “tweet,” and “bailout.”

“It’s a very old word, but over the course of just a few months it took on another life and moved in new and unexpected directions, thanks to a national and global movement,” Ben Zimmer, chair of the New Words Committee for the American Dialect Society, said in a statement.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began in September in Lower Manhattan, before spreading to communities around the country and the world as a call to action against unequal distribution of wealth and other issues.

Founded in 1889, the American Dialect Society is made up of “academics, linguists, anyone involved in the specialization of language,” according to Grant Barrett, the society’s vice president.

Barrett, who also co-hosts “A Way with Words,” a public radio program about language, said the annual conference provides an opportunity for linguistics professionals and graduate students to share information and research.

But Barrett says the word of the year vote, now in its 22nd year is, “light-hearted and whimsical.”

Nominations for the word of the year are submitted by society members in attendance at the annual conference, but can also be submitted by the community at large.

“Occupy” may have taken top honors, but several other words and phrases received recognition.

“Mellencamp,” a woman who has aged out of being a “cougar” (after John Cougar Mellencamp), and “kardash,” a unit of measurement consisting of 72 days, after the short-lived marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, were both recognized in the “Most Creative” category.

Barrett said many of the nominated words that have significance now likely won’t stand the test of time.

For instance, “Tebowing” and “9-9-9” were quite popular in 2011, but Barrett doubts they’ll last very long.

Some words are just outright unnecessary — like Charlie Sheen’s “bi-winning,” a term he used to describe himself pridefully, dismissing accusations of being bipolar, and “amazeballs,” a slang form of amazing.

In the most outrageous category, “deather” — one who doubts the official story of the killing of Osama bin Laden — was recognized.

While all in good fun and a chance for “good-natured intelligent people to let their hair down,” Barrett hopes the word of the year vote conveys two important messages to even the purist of linguists: “Language change is normal. Language change is interesting.”

cnn.com, anuary 8, 2012

January 9, 2012