The world’s biggest home improvement chain also boosted its full-year earnings and revenue forecasts Tuesday, citing its year-to-date performance and outlook for the rest of the year.

Shares climbed 4 percent in premarket trading.

For the three months ended May 5, Home Depot Inc. earned $1.23 billion, or 83 cents per share. That’s up from $1 payday loan no faxing.04 billion, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts predicted earnings of 76 cents per share.

Revenue for the Atlanta company rose 7 percent to $19.12 billion from $17.81 billion. Wall Street expected $18.62 billion.

Revenue at stores open at least a year climbed 4.3 percent.

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The group — which includes author Margaret Atwood, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and actor Gordon Pinsent — has signed an online petition to rename this Monday’s public holiday “Victoria and First Peoples Day.”

Peter Keleghan, an actor and spokesman for the group, says the name would provide a chance to honour both the Crown and the indigenous peoples of Canada.

He says it would help create a better understanding of the various peoples who helped shape Canada.

National Aboriginal Day is celebrated every year on June 21 but it’s not recognized as a national holiday.

Victoria Day marks the birthday of Queen Victoria and is celebrated every year on the last Monday before May 25.

Quebec celebrates National Patriots’ Day on the same day, to honour the rebellion against the British in 1837.

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Victoria Day road closures

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In a speech today, Abe will announce support for research into self-driving automobiles and other technologies, strategies to boost agricultural growth, and a target of tripling infrastructure exports to about 30 trillion yen ($293 billion) by fiscal 2020, the Nikkei newspaper said without citing anyone. Abe has said he will announce the full plan ahead of the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland on June 17-18.

The measures are part of the

The airlines lost $552 million _ or $3.30 per passenger _ in the first three months compared with a loss of $1.7 billion a year earlier, as travel slowed after the holidays.

Airlines have been making a concerted effort to get their costs under control, said John Heimlichm chief economists for Airlines for America, the industry’s lobbying group.

That’s a big challenge. Fuel accounts for more than a third of the airlines’ costs and is largely out of their control. Airlines were able to lower debt and interest payments, Heimlichm said, but the biggest gains came from increasing airfares and charging more in fees.

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British Columbia Liberal Leader Christy Clark pulled off an upset for the history books on the West Coast Tuesday night, confounding every pre-election poll and prediction, retaining power for her centre-right coalition.

Clark entered the 28-day campaign almost 20 points behind New Democrat Adrian Dix, who ran an error-free, but timid, campaign trying to ensure that voters here would feel no fear of switching to a party which had only governed in the province three times before.

Yes, British Columbia had surprised, as it has before. Ninety minutes after the polls closed, it was being declared the “West Coast miracle.’’

But the Clark victory marked the second time in two years that major pollsters got an election in Western Canada wrong — brutally wrong.

Both times they heralded change which never came.

It was barely a year ago that Alberta pollsters had prematurely declared Alberta Progressive Premier Alison Redford dead before a late-minute swing away from Wildrose party leader Danielle Smith gave her a victory.

There was a thought that there were too many significant differences between the two provinces for it to happen here, but there we were again.

The campaign appeared to turn on trust and voters would not seal the deal with Dix, a former party backroom strategist who was involved in scandal in the former NDP government of Glen Clark.

Christy Clark overcame it all.

She bucked what we were told was a mood for change in the province, she ignored scandal, shrugged off internal dissent and dismissed withering poll numbers.

She also somehow kept the question of the harmonized sales tax — seen as a blatant betrayal of voter trust by the Liberals when it was introduced shortly after the 2009 campaign — off the radar.

Instead, she successfully turned the ballot question here from one of voter fatigue to one of the economy and leadership and turned Dix into the political equivalent of the Maple Leafs in the third period of the final game.

In the Vancouver Convention Centre about an hour after the polls closed, a sinking reality took hold. A crowd waiting to party instead stood silent, slack jawed.

There appeared to be immediate lessons which could be drawn from the upset.

Dix seemed to fritter away a lead by not striking back at Clark’s attacks on his character and making a virtue of running on the high road, banking on a hunger for change after 12 years.

Clark appeared to also successfully prey on deeply inbred fears of an NDP government stifling economic growth and killing jobs no fax needed payday loans.

Dix had announced his opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion by Kinder Morgan on Earth Day, early in the campaign, giving Clark a chance to brand him Dr. No and sow further doubt about the economic future of the province.

She pounded away at Dix with voters in commercials warning about the NDP “never changing,’’ and his lack of strong leadership.

Dix sold himself as non-threatening. He also came across as uninspiring.

Clark placed Dix’s visage on a weather vane, flip-flopping in the wind in a particularly effective 30-second spot.

Clark had whittled away at a huge pre-election lead built by the New Democrats final polling data showed her well behind and thought to be facing peril on a number of fronts.

There was, in fact, a business group in Vancouver so disgruntled with her leadership that they had been named the 8.01 crowd, hoping to unseat her a minute after the polls closed.

A double defeat — an election loss to Dix and a defeat in her home riding of Vancouver Point-Grey could have hastened her departure and possibly sparked the tearing down and rebranding of the coalition she heads, one which has been plagued by infighting.

She had blunted much of that internal dissent with a campaign that kept the party afloat before Tuesday’s stunning turnaround.

In the campaign’s final hours, Clark’s Liberals played the “red menace” card and kept up its attack on Dix’s role in the government “memo-dating” scandal as proof that he cannot be trusted.

Clark, enjoyed a burst of momentum after winning the leadership in 2011, but soon found herself facing the reality of a longer and longer path to victory as the 2013 vote approached.

There were 85 seats up for grabs with four main parties in the mix, but the Conservatives under former MP John Cummins fell off the map with a stunningly inept and gaffe-prone campaign.

He lost his own seat and the party elected no members.

The Green party’s Andrew Weaver made history with a victory on Vancouver Island, the first provincial win for the party in Canada.

But that particular bit of history would be a footnote to the history made by Clark, Canada’s new comeback kid.

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Voters formed long queues outside precinct offices to pick half of the 24-seat Senate, members of the House of Representatives and other local officials. One poll earlier this month forecasted that candidates backed by Aquino will win nine of the 12 Senate seats up for grabs.

Aquino, who has overseen an economic revival during the first three years of his single six-year term, said in a May 8 interview he wants to reduce the number of people who travel abroad to earn a living. Tightening his grip on the Senate will also enable the 53-year-old leader to push for stronger anti-graft measures and changes in education.

]]> http://finabc.com/filipinos-vote-for-senate-as-aquino-pushes-anti-graft-moves-bloomberg/feed/ http://finabc.com/g7-says-japan-playing-by-currency-rules/ http://finabc.com/g7-says-japan-playing-by-currency-rules/#comments Sat, 11 May 2013 21:46:00 +0000 Specialist http://finabc.com/g7-says-japan-playing-by-currency-rules/ Finance leaders from the Group of Seven leading industrial economies say Japan’s stimulus policies are directed at boosting its economy out of a two-decade period of stagnation, not an attempt to drive down its currency to make Japan’s exports more competitive.

At the conclusion of a two-day meeting of leading financial representatives from the G-7 countries _ the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the U.K. _ host British Treasury chief George Osborne said there was a formal acknowledgement that each member needed to secure their own countries’ growth by balancing austerity measures with growth-enhancing policies. The officials also agreed on the importance of finding measures to deal with failing banks and working collectively to stop companies and individuals from dodging their tax bills.

The global recovery from recession over the past few years has been patchy. While the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, appears to be gaining traction, many European countries are in recession as they try to get a grip on their public finances through deep spending cuts and tax increases.

“The will is still there to reduce the deficits but there is certainly a change of tone,” said Pierre Moscovici, France’s finance minister at the conclusion of the two-day summit at a country house around 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of London.

Japan, the world’s number 3 economy has been in focus in recent months. The new government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised aggressive steps to restart the country’s postwar boom, which effectively ground to a halt in the early 1990s. As part of that effort, the Bank of Japan plans to double the amount of cash circulating in the Japanese economy and held as bank reserves.

One of the offshoots of the policies has been a dramatic fall in the value of the yen. On Thursday, the dollar rose above 100 yen for the first time in over four years. The yen has weakened by more than 20 percent against the dollar since October, when it was trading at around 78 yen.

As well as potentially boosting economic growth by making its exports more competitive, the flipside of a lower yen is that it can also stoke inflation by increasing the price of imports. For a country that’s seen prices fall for much of the past 15 years, that’s important.

The rapid slide in the value of the yen has sparked fears of a “currency war” _ where countries use their exchange rates as an economic weapon. If other countries respond to the falling yen by debasing their currencies, Japan will be back at square one and the world economy could suffer. Sharp fluctuations in the value of currencies can hurt business confidence and investment.

So far, the argument presented by Japanese officials that it has been targeting monetary stimulus and not its exchange rate has been accepted by Japan’s G-7 partners.

Osborne, who hosted the two days of informal discussions, said the G-7 countries agreed to make sure that “policies are oriented towards domestic objectives.”

In a rare development, the G-7 didn’t actually issue a communique at the conclusion of its deliberations. However, Osborne said the previous communique “was a successful statement and one that has been held to” _ a clear reference to Japan.

In February, when markets were particularly roiled by developments in Japan, the G-7 said their respective fiscal and monetary policies were oriented toward meeting domestic requirements and that exchange rates were not a target of policy.

A senior U.S. Treasury official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a good discussion about what’s going on in Japan and that Japanese officials went into some detail about how the new policy was helping to boost domestic demand.

The official reaffirmed the importance that Japan continues to meet previous commitments, a point made a day earlier by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew who said he was monitoring developments.

Analysts said it’s difficult for the G-7 to make any concerns over Japan public because other countries, such as the U.S. and Britain, have been accused of debasing their respective currencies over the past few years through their monetary stimulus programs.

“It’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black,” said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon.

All participants at the meeting said boosting economic growth was a priority now that financial markets appear to have calmed down, especially with regard to the debt crisis that has gripped the 17-country Eurozone.

Bad banking practices around many parts of the world were behind the financial explosion in 2008, which sent the world economy skidding to its deepest recession since World War II. Britain’s Osborne said it was important to swiftly complete work to make sure that no bank is too big to fail.

“We must put regimes in place … to deal with failing banks and to protect taxpayers and to do so in a globally consistent manner,” he said.

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said the bank was working out what it can do to make sure banks lend more. Though banks have managed to reduce their debt and bolster their capital reserves and have benefited from liquidity offers from the ECB, lending remains stuck at relatively low levels _ particularly to smaller and medium sized enterprises.

“There wasn’t any call to do more really,” Draghi said, a day after Britain’s Osborne indicated there would be discussions on the role of the world’s central banks in shoring up global growth.

Osborne also said it was important to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, and said some of the U.K.’s offshore dependencies are working to make sure they follow the spirit of new international standards.

“Today, we all agree on the importance of collective action to tackle tax avoidance and evasion,” he said. “We are absolutely determined to make progress this year …. It is vital that both developed and developing countries collect the tax that is due to them.”

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The nurse, Melanie Boucher, administered the medications on July 22, 2007, while Smith was an inmate in the Joliette prison in Quebec, the inquest has heard.

Three months later, the 19-year-old died of asphyxiation in a prison cell at Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution for Women.

Smith was seen on that July morning putting a metal object in one of her body cavities while in a segregation cell at the prison, Boucher testified.

Fearing Smith might harm herself or others with the object, a psychiatrist, Dr. Michele Roy, who was not present in the jail at the time, advised Boucher over the phone to put Smith in physical restraints and drug her with “chemical restraints,’’ Boucher has testified.

The goal, the Toronto inquest heard Thursday, was to stabilize Smith and get her quickly to a hospital, where a body cavity search could be done on her to locate the objects.

Reading from notes at the time, Boucher told the inquest that later that day a physician at the hospital refused to do the cavity search, so Smith remained at the jail.

In the meantime, the teenager was given another drug injection around 8 p.m. that day by a different nurse, bringing the total for the day to five.

The inquest also heard that Smith received another two injections of sedatives from Boucher July 26, 2007 — again under Roy’s orders, Boucher testified — shortly before Smith was to get on a plane and fly to another women’s prison in Nova Scotia.

On a video of the injection incidents at the inquest Wednesday, Smith repeatedly says “no” to the shots, and the issue of her non-consent became a central theme Thursday, one that was pounced on by Julian Roy, the lawyer for the Smith family.

Boucher admitted Smith was given the shots without her consent, because the teen was seen putting the objects in one of her cavities.

The psychiatrist said consent “didn’t enter the picture’’ because of the hidden objects, Boucher told the lawyer Internet Payday loans.

The lawyer asked the nurse whether she recalled the psychiatrist saying Smith’s consent was irrelevant.

“I wouldn’t say irrelevant,’’ the nurse shot back.

Boucher said the goal at the time was to save Smith’s life, and that under those circumstances it was “common practice’’ in Quebec in those days in hospitals to give injections without consent.

Boucher was also working in a hospital at the time, the inquest has heard.

Lawyer Roy asked her if she’s aware of the changes sparked by the injection controversy involving Smith at Joliette.

Boucher told him there are clear rules about who can give inmates injections.

“Do these changes raise concerns about your conduct (at the time)?’’ he asked Boucher.

Boucher paused, removed her glasses, and then broke down in tears on the stand.

“You know, one chooses to help others,’’ she said, her voice trailing off. “Regardless of what happened . . . all I wanted was to help.”

She later added: “According to the guidelines I had that day, everything I did was for the care of the inmate.’’

Michele Roy, the psychiatrist who Boucher says ordered Smith be put in restraints and injected, is set to testify at the inquest soon.

Her lawyer, Mark Freiman, told Boucher Thursday that some facts about Dr. Roy’s memory of the injection incidents “will be different from yours.’’

The lawyer asked Boucher whether she’d ever heard Dr. Roy use the phrase “chemical restraints.’’

Boucher couldn’t recall, but said it was a common expression.

“You use it, but it’s my understanding Dr. Roy never uses it,’’ Freiman replied.

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WASHINGTON — Sexual assaults in the U.S. military are a growing epidemic across the services and thousands of victims are still unwilling to come forward despite a slew of new oversight and assistance programs, according to Pentagon documents.

Troubling new numbers estimate that up to 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, according to survey results released against a backdrop of scandals including an ongoing investigation into more than 30 air force instructors for assaults on trainees at a Texas base

The report comes just days after the Air Force’s head of sexual assault prevention was arrested last weekend on charges of groping a woman in a suburban Virginia parking lot. And it follows a heated debate over whether commanders should be stripped of the authority to overturn military jury verdicts, such as one officer did in a recent sexual assault conviction.

President Barack Obama delivered a sharp rebuke Tuesday, saying he has no tolerance for the problem, and he said he talked to Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel about it. He said that any military member found guilty of sexual assault should be held accountable, prosecuted and fired.

“I don’t want just more speeches or awareness programs or training, or ultimately folks look the other way,” he said. “We’re going to have to not just step up our game, we have to exponentially step up our game to go after this hard.”

The Associated Press obtained documents and memos related to a new Pentagon report slated for release Tuesday. The documents show that the number of sexual assaults actually reported by members of the military rose 6 per cent to 3,374 in 2012. But a survey of personnel who were not required to reveal their identities showed the number of service members actually assaulted could be as many as 26,000, but they never reported the incidents, officials said Tuesday.

That number is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011.

The statistics highlight the dismal results that military leaders have achieved in their drive to change the culture within the ranks, even as the services redoubled efforts to launch new programs to assist the victims, encourage reporting and increase commanders’ vigilance.

Hagel ordered a series of steps and reviews to increase officers’ accountability for what happens under their commands, and to inspect workstations for objectionable materials, according to memos and documents obtained by the AP.

Hagel ordered military leaders to develop a method to assess commanders and hold them accountable on their ability to create a climate “of dignity and respect.” He has given commanders until July 1 to visually inspect workspaces to make sure they are free of degrading materials, and military leaders have until Nov free credit report and score. 1 to recommend ways to assess officers and hold them accountable for their command climates.

“Sexual assault is a crime that is incompatible with military service and has no place in this department,” Hagel said in a new response plan the department will release Tuesday. “It is an affront to the American values we defend, and it is a stain on our honour. (The Department of Defence) needs to be a national leader in combating sexual assault and we will establish an environment of dignity and respect, where sexual assault is not tolerated, condoned, or ignored.”

While the latest cases involve Air Force members, the problem extends across all the military services.

In Congress, lawmakers demanded the Pentagon take more aggressive steps to address the growing problem and they announced renewed efforts to pass legislation to battle the problem.

“When our best and our brightest put on a uniform and join the United States Armed Forces, they do so with the understanding that they will sacrifice much in the name of defending our country and its people. However, it’s unconscionable to think that entertaining unwanted sexual contact from within the ranks is now part of that equation,” said Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat. “Not only are we subjecting our men and women to this disgusting epidemic, but we’re also failing to provide the victims with any meaningful support system once they have fallen victim to these attacks.”

This week’s sexual battery arrest of Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, who headed the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit, provided a rallying point for lawmakers, who held it up Tuesday as an example of the Pentagon’s failure to make progress despite the increased effort.

Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat, told Air Force officials at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday that “while under our legal system everyone is innocent until proven guilty, this arrest speaks volumes about the status and effectiveness of (the Defence) department’s efforts to address the plague of sexual assaults in the military.”

Members of Congress are putting together legislation to essentially strip military officers of the authority to overturn convictions for serious offences such as sexual assault. The measure stem from congressional outrage over an Air Force officer’s decision to reverse a jury verdict in a sexual assault case.

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The Bentonville, Ark., company’s revenue grew nearly 6 percent in 2012 to $469.2 billion.

Exxon Mobil Corp. dropped to the second spot, with revenue of $449.9 billion, but was still the most profitable. Energy companies continued to dominate the top of the list, with rival oil and gas producer Chevron Corp. holding steady at No. 3 and refiners Valero Energy Corp. and Phillips 66, spun off from ConocoPhillips last year, joining the top 10.

Fortune Magazine released its annual ranking on Monday.

Moving up two spots to No. 5 is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which owns everything from insurers to railroads to newspaper publishers and is in the process of acquiring Heinz Co. Manufacturing stalwarts General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and General Electric Co. slipped in the survey but all remained in the top 10 No teletrak payday loan.

Bigger sales of iPads and iPhones helped Apple Inc. jump 11 spots to crack the top 10 for the first time, landing at No. 6. The Cupertino, Calif., company’s soaring stock price also made it one of the most valuable companies by market cap last year, though shares have since posted a double-digit decline.

Another technology bellwether wasn’t as fortunate. Hewlett-Packard Co. slipped to No. 15 from No. 10 as the Palo Alto, Calif., technology pioneer struggled with a broad consumer shift from PCs to smartphones and tablets and its own accounting missteps.

Also off the top 10 is government mortgage provider Fannie Mae, which dropped four spots to No. 12.

Meanwhile, social media powerhouse Facebook Inc., which last year went public in one of the biggest initial public offerings ever, debuted at 482 on the Fortune 500.

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