Month: June 2018

A pop-up "Corruption Park" has opened in Ukraine to highlight the scale of the problem with interactive exhibits and displays of ill-gotten gains including a $46,000 crystal falcon. One of the first things visitors see in the EU-funded show is a tent shaped like the gold loaf of bread found in the house of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych after he fled Ukraine in 2014. Elsewhere, they can inspect a $300,000, limited-edition BMW seized from a corrupt official, and a copy of a 8-million-euro chandelier that, the display says, could have paid for a family's electricity bill for 64,000 years. In another tent, visitors lie back in a four-poster bed and watch a multimedia film of the imagined nightmares of a guilty government functionary. The EU Anti-Corruption Initiative, which staged the show…

For the first time, the World Health Organization is adding Gaming disorder to the section on Mental and Addictive Disorders in its new International Classification of Diseases. The ICD provides data on the causes of thousands of diseases, injuries and deaths across the globe and information on prevention and treatment. The International Classification of Diseases was last revised 28 years ago. Changes, which have occurred since then are reflected in this edition. Gaming disorder has been added to the section on mental and addictive disorders because demand for services to tackle this condition has been growing. Gaming disorders usually are linked to a system of rewards or incentives, such as accumulating points in competition with others or winning money. These games are commonly played on electronic and video devices. WHO…

German authorities have arrested the chief executive of Volkswagen's Audi division, Rupert Stadler. He was arrested Monday as part of an investigation about cars Audi sold in Europe that are believed to have been equipped with software that turned emissions controls off during regular driving. Last week, Munich prosecutors raided Stadler's home on suspicion of fraud and improprieties of documents. Volkswagen Audi said "the presumption of innocence remains in place for Mr. Stadler." Volkswagen has pleaded guilty to emissions test cheating in the United States. CEO Martin Winterkorn was charged in the United States, but he will unlikely face those charges since Germany does not extradite its nationals to countries outside the European Union. ...

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has intensified his war on graft by announcing that all public servants will undergo a compulsory lifestyle audit to account for their sources of wealth. This latest announcement follows financial scandals that have rocked the country with revelations that millions of dollars were lost in various government agencies through corrupt deals that involved government officials. Kenyatta offered himself to be the first leader to undergo the audit that seeks to identify corrupt public officials, saying the lifestyle audits would control the misuse of public funds. He said public servants would be required to explain their sources of wealth with an aim of weeding out those found to have plundered government funds. “You have to tell us, this is the house you have, this is your salary,…

After two consecutive years of decline, remittances, the money migrant workers send home, increased in 2017 according to figures released by the World Bank. Remittances are a significant financial contribution to the well-being of families of migrant workers and to the sustainable development of their countries of origin. The U.N. recognizes their importance every year on June 16, designated International Day of Family Remittances. VOA's Cristina Caicedo Smit reports on this vital lifeline. ...

Seventy percent of Canadians say they will start looking for ways to avoid buying U.S.-made goods in a threat to ratchet up a trade dispute between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump, an Ipsos Poll showed Friday. The poll also found a majority of Americans and Canadians are united in support of Trudeau and opposition to Trump in their countries' standoff over the renegotiation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Amid the spat, Trump pulled out of a joint communique with six other countries last weekend during a Quebec summit meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies and called Trudeau "very dishonest and weak." Trump was reacting to Trudeau's having called U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs insulting to Canada. Trudeau has said little about the matter since a Trump Twitter assault.  Despite the tensions, 85 percent…

A set of retaliatory tariffs released by China on Friday includes a plan to tax American lobster exports, potentially jeopardizing one of the biggest markets for the premium seafood.  Chinese officials announced the planned lobster tariff along with hundreds of other tariffs amid the country's escalating trade fight with the United States. China said it wants to place new duties on items such as farm products, autos and seafood starting July 6. The announcement could have major ramifications for the U.S. seafood industry and for the economy of the state of Maine, which is home to most of the country's lobster fishery. China's interest in U.S. lobster has grown exponentially in recent years, and selling to China has become a major focus of the lobster industry. "Hopefully cooler heads can…

President Donald Trump has approved a plan to impose punishing tariffs on tens of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods as early as Friday, a move that could put his trade policies on a collision course with his push to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. Trump has long vowed to fulfill his campaign pledge to clamp down on what he considers unfair Chinese trading practices. But his calls for billions in tariffs could complicate his efforts to maintain China’s support in his negotiations with North Korea. Trump met Thursday with several Cabinet members and trade advisers and was expected to impose tariffs on at least $35 billion to $40 billion of Chinese imports, according to an industry official and an administration official familiar with the plans. The…

AT&T Inc may close its $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc under an agreement reached on Thursday with the U.S. government, which might still appeal a case seen as a turning point for the media industry. AT&T said it could close the deal by Friday. The government has not ruled out an appeal and has 60 days to file. AT&T agreed to temporarily manage Time Warner’s Turner networks separately from DirecTV, including setting prices and managing personnel, as part of the deal approved by Judge Richard Leon late Thursday. The conditions agreed to by AT&T would remain in effect until Feb. 28, 2019, the conclusion of the case or an appeal. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Tuesday that the deal…

Nyet. Non. Nein. No. That's the answer the Supreme Court gave Thursday to the question of whether federal courts in the United States must accept statements from foreign governments about their own laws as binding. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for a unanimous court that a “federal court should accord respectful consideration to a foreign government's submission,” but is not required to treat it as conclusive. Given “the world's many and diverse legal systems and the range of circumstances in which a foreign government's views may be presented,” there is no single formula on how to treat the information a foreign government provides, Ginsburg wrote. Ginsburg said the appropriate weight given to a government's statement in each case will depend on the circumstances. Among the factors that U.S. courts should…

Caterers in Washington tweeted a photo of maroon sashimi appetizers served to 700 guests attending the governor's inaugural ball last year. They were told the tuna was from Montauk. But it was an illusion. It was the dead of winter and no yellowfin had been landed in the New York town. An Associated Press investigation traced the supply chain of national distributor Sea To Table to other parts of the world, where fishermen described working under slave-like conditions with little regard for marine life. In a global seafood industry plagued by deceit, conscientious consumers will pay top dollar for what they believe is local, sustainably caught seafood. But even in this fast-growing niche market, companies can hide behind murky dealings, making it difficult to know the story behind any given…

Leaders of the U.S. central bank raised interest rates slightly Wednesday and signaled that rates are likely to go higher as the economy continues to strengthen. At the end of two days of deliberation in Washington, the Federal Reserve set the key interest rate a quarter of a percent higher, at a range between 1.75 and 2 percent. They say the labor market continues to improve, spending is rising, and inflation is rising closer to the modest 2 percent annual rate that experts say helps the economy grow predictably. Fed officials work to maximize employment while maintaining stable prices. With that in mind, they slashed interest rates to nearly zero during the recession in 2008 to boost economic activity. Now, they judge that it is time to continue raising rates…

German authorities fined Volkswagen nearly $1.2 billion Wednesday for its role in a diesel emissions scandal that first surfaced in the United States in 2015. Prosecutors found the German automaker failed to properly monitor its engine development department. The lack of oversight resulted in global sales of nearly 11 million diesel vehicles with illegal emissions-controlling software. U.S. authorities previously imposed billions of dollars in penalties on the automaker, which said Wednesday it would accept the fine announced by prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig. Volkswagen said paying the latest fine would hopefully have "positive effects on other official proceedings being conducted in Europe" against the company and its subsidiaries. ...

As the trade dispute escalates between the United States and its global trading partners, American bourbon whiskey is among the U.S. exports in the crosshairs. It will soon be subject to a 25 percent tariff imposed by a growing number of countries as a retaliatory measure for U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, the retaliation is a blow to smaller craft distilleries in the U.S. trying to expand overseas. ...

Distilling spirits is in Paul Hletko’s DNA. “Prior to World War II, my grandfather’s family owned what is now a major brewery in the Czech Republic,” he told VOA. But his grandfather’s Jewish family lost more than a brewery when the Nazis took over Europe during the war. “The whole family got taken to the camps where they were all murdered, except my grandfather. He spent the rest of his life trying to get the brewery back and never did. And when he died, it struck me that if I didn’t do something to reconnect and reengage with the family legacy, it would be gone forever," Hletko said. Honoring his family legacy forced Hletko away from a law career to launch Few Spirits in 2008… an homage to his ancestors,…

Shares of embattled Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE plunged more than 40 percent Wednesday, its first day of trading after agreeing to pay a $1 billion fine to the United States for violating trade sanctions. ZTE nearly went under after the Trump administration imposed a seven-year ban on the company from buying crucial software and hardware components for its smartphones and other devices from U.S. companies. The ban was punishment for ZTE putting U.S.-built components in its products and selling those goods to countries under a U.S. trade embargo, including Iran and North Korea. The sanctions were lifted after ZTE agreed to pay a $1 billion penalty, put another $400 million in escrow, and replace its entire management and board by the middle of July. The company is also required to…

There is no end to demand for what many consider to be Italy’s white gold, the marble from the Tuscan town of Carrara, a name synonymous with the very best money can buy in the world today. It is no secret, and it is not new. The quarrying in these mountains has been going on for more than 2,000 years. The Romans were the first to be lured by the stone's beauty and millions of tourists to this day still flock to admire some of the most magnificent ancient monuments made with this special stone, the likes of the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column in the Eternal City. And then there are famous statues like the David and the Pietà by Renaissance master Michelangelo. So what is happening in Carrara today?…