Latin America
has in Caracas, Venezuela one of the largest active social groups
of expats (expatriates) in South America. Called the Rincon
Gang or Rinconeers, they publish a regular newsletter, the Rincon
Reminder, which updates their Caracas community web site, www.Expat-Village.com
The Rincon Reminder updates are also issued to ex-Caracas Rinconeers
now living and working in over 25 countries..
The Expat-Village web-site has all the latest Venezuelan news in English.
We publish news stories of interest to expatriates, including world news, sport,
entertainment and business. We have features on travel in Venezuela, Latin
America and the Caribbean, quick food recipes, and Venezuela security alerts.
Caracas social activities are listed in ‘What’s on in Caracas’, and we’ll keep
you amused with the 'Joke of the Day' page.
News Section
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UK News
British regulator admits failings in Northern Rock fiasco
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| Northern Rock was hit hard by the global credit crunch |
LONDON — Britain's
top financial services regulator admitted Wednesday to serious failings
in its oversight of Northern Rock, the British bank that needed a
government bailout to save it from collapse last year.
The
Financial Services Authority (FSA), responsible for regulating London's
City financial district, said in a statement on Wednesday that an
internal review had exposed a series of mistakes in the run-up to the
fiasco.
Northern Rock lurched into crisis in August, when it
sought emergency central bank funds because of the credit squeeze, and
was taken into public hands last month after the government could not
find a private sector buyer.
The internal FSA review found that
regulation of the bank "was not carried out to a standard that is
acceptable" and had failed to monitor Northern Rock's risk management
closely enough.
The FSA vowed to overhaul its oversight of
Britain's main commercial banks, with closer and improved supervision
that would be regularly reviewed and would focus on liquidity
requirements.
Northern Rock was brought to the brink of collapse
when it could not raise funds on credit markets to cover its
liabilities and depositors beseiged the retail bank's branches in
September to withdraw their savings.
It was the first run on a British bank in more than a century.
The FSA said Wednesday that it had been guilty of............
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas and Porlamar, Margarita Island, Venezuela.
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UK News
Heather Mills torn to shreds by Sir Paul McCartney divorce judge
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A Reuters story by Paul Majendie at
www.reuters.com
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| McCartney & Mills settle divorce |
LONDON (Reuters) - The judge in
Paul McCartney's divorce settlement berated the former Beatle's
estranged wife Heather Mills for giving "inconsistent and inaccurate"
evidence, according to details of the ruling released on Tuesday.
Judge
Hugh Bennett, who on Monday ordered McCartney to pay Mills 24.3 million
pounds, said she had conducted her own defence "with courteous, yet
steely determination" after earlier sacking her own lawyers.
But in a judgment Mills never wanted to be aired in public, he concluded: "Overall she was a less than impressive witness."
In contrast, the judge praised McCartney for giving balanced evidence during the six-day hearing.
"He
expressed himself moderately, though at times with justifiable
irritation, if not anger," Bennett said. "He was consistent, accurate
and................
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
Quote of the week by Judge Hugh Bennett in his criticism of
Mills
"If the wife feels aggrieved about what I propose (the drastically
reduced settlement) she only has herself to blame. If, as she has done, a
litigant flagrantly over-eggs the pudding and thus deprives the court of any
sensible assistance, then he or she is likely to find that the court takes a
robust view and drastically prunes the proposed budget."
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UK News
British pound dips on Northern Rock nationalization
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By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The British pound weakened on Monday after the U.K. government's landmark move to nationalize mortgage lender Northern Rock.
The government on Sunday nationalized the U.K. lender, arguing that
offers from Virgin Group and the Newcastle lender's own management
wouldn't have given enough value to taxpayers. The Bank of England has
already provided billions of pounds in emergency loans to Northern
Rock, a U.K. lender that needed emergency assistance last year when
credit markets dried up. See related Northern Rock story.
The pound slumped to $1.9481 from $1.9613, and neared a fresh record low against the euro.
"It's the least desirable outcome for the banking sector, it suggests
the market can't find a market solution for this," said Rob Carnell, an
economist for ING in London.
"It also throws a doubt of credibility into the government's ability to manage the economy."
During a press conference, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denied
that London had suffered any damage to its stature as a financial
center. Brown pointed out that problems with Northern Rock started with
difficulties in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, and noted
difficulties with U.S. bond insurers, the rogue-trading scandal at
French bank Societe Generale and the bailouts needed at two...............
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
Exxon freeze on Venezuela assets could affect London bus deal
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A story by Natalie Obiko of Dow Jones
Newswires at www.dowjones.com
Exxon Mobil Corp.'s move to freeze the
overseas assets of Venezuela's state oil company through a U.K. court
could complicate a high-profile deal that has seen Venezuela
subsidizing low fares for the poor on London's iconic red buses.
London's controversial Mayor Ken Livingstone, who faces re-election May
1, struck a deal with the government of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary, in February 2007 to
allow Londoners on income support to travel on London buses and trams
for half price.
Under the agreement, state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or
PdVSA, was to provide cash payments to London's transport authority to
offset the cost of lost revenues, as well as to pay for administration
costs and advertising.
In return, the Greater London Authority, a city-wide governing body
whose responsibilities include transport, policing, fire and emergency
planning, is advising Caracas on how to improve its transport and other
municipal services.
More than 50,000 people have signed up for the scheme, while an
advertising blitz has seen double-decker buses plastered with
wraparound signs touting Venezuela's tourist wonders. A million inserts
in local publications, as well as radio adverts have been paid for out
of a GBP2 million administrative budget set aside to promote and run
the high-profile program.
But the program's future may be in question after Irving, Texas-based
ExxonMobil won an order from a British court last month to freeze up to......
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
London's New Eurostar Glitter Masks Low-Speed Commuter Misery
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A Bloomberg story by Tracy Alloway at www.bloomberg.com
London - Sarah Chapman isn't impressed
by the restored gothic façade of St. Pancras International train station in
north London.
``It won't be helping me,'' said Chapman, 36, who
travels to London about twice a week from her home in Luton, north of the
capital. ``I'll still be slogging away, struggling to find a seat in the
mornings, and there'll still be delays whenever there's a bit of snow or a leaf
blows onto the tracks.''
The terminal, with its 186-mph rail link to France,
opens today, reviving a Victorian-era landmark once slated for destruction.
While the 5.8 billion-pound ($12 billion) line will cut the Eurostar journey to
Paris by 20 minutes, domestic travelers still face being sardined into carriages
meandering across the country on low-speed tracks.
Commuters ``seem to have been treated very much as
second- class citizens in the planning of the whole enterprise,'' said Paul
Herrington, a 68-year-old economist who has been traveling to St. Pancras from
Leicester for 30 years.
The government and a group of private rail
companies spent about 800 million pounds to refurbish St. Pancras, the terminus
for Eurostar trains previously operated out of Waterloo station.
Visitors to the 139-year-old station will be able
to slurp oysters at Europe's longest champagne bar, shop at a farmer's market or
have a pint at a gastropub, in addition to catching a train that will take them
to Paris in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
The terminal stands in contrast to the majority of
the U.K.'s 2,500 rail stations, two-thirds of which don't have toilets or
waiting areas, according to the National Audit Office.
Commuter Demand
Demand for rail travel has grown faster than
capacity over the past decade, and passenger figures are the highest in 60
years, according to the government. It predicts numbers will increase by an
additional 30 percent in the next decade.
Commuters made 316 million rail trips in and out
of London last year, compared with the 7.85 million Eurostar journeys.
The government says it is working on improving
domestic railways, including an upgrade of the West Coast Main Line from London
to Glasgow. The 8.6 billion-pound project has cut travel times, though Virgin
Rail Group Ltd. still can't run its trains at................ Click above for more on this story
Expat Village is edited and published by Iain Williams
in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
Passport checks threaten chaos at UK airports
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A Daily
Telegraph Money article by David Millward at http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Holidaymakers were warned yesterday to
expect summer holiday travel chaos as the first signs emerged that the
Government's new border controls are causing significant delays at
airports.
The introduction of sophisticated scanning machinery by the
newly-created Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) has doubled the time
it takes to process passengers arriving back in the country.
An immigration officer checks a British passport
The new technology, which uses lasers to scan passports, has created
havoc at Stansted airport and there have been reports of delays at
Luton.
Airlines fear that the problem will spread as the system is extended to other airports over the next few months.
Stephen Nelson, the chief executive of BAA, which runs the leading
airports, held crisis talks yesterday with Douglas Alexander, the
Transport Secretary.
They were attempting to avert another summer of delays and disruptions - with the new passport controls top of the agenda.
The technology is designed to improve passport security and tighten
immigration controls on all arrivals - including UK and EU citizens,
who in the past have been subject to more relaxed measures.
London's airports alone will have to handle more than a quarter of a million arrivals a day over the summer.
A BAA spokesman said last night: "We have spent over £20 million,
recruited another 1,400 security staff and put another 21 checkpoints
in place to handle passengers as they leave.
"But it is not our job to ensure their smooth entry into the country,
that is down to the Border and Immigration Agency to provide enough
staff."
The threat of further chaos comes as the travel industry starts to...............
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
Three arrested over London 2005 July 7 bombings
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A Guardian story by James Sturcke at http://www.guardian.co.uk
A Guardian story by James Sturcke at http://www.guardian.co.uk
Three men were today arrested in connection with the July 7 London
bombings, which killed 52 commuters on the capital's public transport
system.
In the first significant arrests since the 2005 attacks, two men, aged
23 and 30, were arrested shortly before 1pm at Manchester airport,
where they were due to catch a flight to Pakistan.
A third man, aged 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds shortly after 4pm.
The three were arrested by officers from the Met's counter-terrorism
command on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of
acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000.
They are being taken to a central London police station, where they will be held in custody and interviewed.
Searches are being carried out at five houses in......
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
Beatles on UK stamps in 2007 - In pictures
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| Beatles - Abbey Road |
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
UK Travel chaos continues as more London Heathrow flights are axed
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A Guardian story by Matt Weaver at http://www.guardian.co.uk
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| Fog-bound BA on the runway at Heathrow |
Passengers
today faced further travel misery as continued heavy fog forced British
Airways to cancel 170 flights at Heathrow and road and rail routes
became increasingly crowded. BA was forced to scrap all its domestic flights from the west London airport on a third day of poor visibility. While
passengers at some other UK airports were affected by delays or
cancellations, Heathrow bore the brunt of the disruption, with 40,000
passengers facing heavily delayed or cancelled flights today alone. BA
attempted to clear backlogs by using bigger planes on those flights
that could leave, while other passengers gave up, taking to the UK’s
increasingly busy road and rail networks. Despite efforts by
airport and airline staff to keep passengers fed, warm and fully
informed, tempers inevitably began to fray as Christmas Day moved
closer. David Ranan, a London-based academic whose flight to
Munich was among those cancelled at Heathrow, said BA staff had little
idea what to...........
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
Man charged with murdering five UK prostitutes
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A BBC story at http://news.bbc.co.uk
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| Mr Wright was remanded in custody until 2 January |
A 48-year-old man has been remanded in custody on charges of murdering five prostitutes whose bodies were found near Ipswich.
Steven
Wright, of Ipswich, is accused of murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Anneli
Alderton, 24, Tania Nicol, 19, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette
Nicholls, 29.
Mr Wright was remanded in custody until 2 January when he is due to appear at Ipswich Crown Court.
Another arrested man, Tom Stephens, 37, has been released on bail.
Mr Wright, a former fork-lift truck driver, was arrested on Tuesday at his home in the Suffolk town and charged by.....
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
J.K. Rowling Reveals Title of Final Harry Potter Book
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A Bloomberg story by Mark Herlihy at www.bloomberg.com
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The final
book in the Harry Potter series about a young wizard's adventures at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be titled ``Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows,'' author J.K. Rowling announced today.
The
title of the seventh book in the series was revealed through a puzzle
on the British writer's Web site, where visitors have to click on items
to reveal a chamber and then guess the name of the book from the clues
given.
``The book's release will be met with an unprecedented
level of excitement,'' Kes Nielsen, the head of book buying at online
retailer Amazon.com Inc., said in an e-mailed statement. ``Over the
past 10 years, so many people have been enchanted by the world and
characters that J.K. Rowling created.''
The previous books have
sold more than 300 million copies, earning Rowling a 520-million-pound
($1.02 billion) fortune, according to the U.K.'s Sunday Times. That
makes her the 10th richest woman in..........
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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UK News
Second man arrested by police hunting killer of five prostitutes in UK.
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A Times Online story by Sean
O'Neill at http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Police
said a 48-year-old man was arrested at 5 o'clock this morning at his
home in Ipswich, less than 24 hours after Tom Stephens, a 37-year-old
supermarket worker and friend of all five of the murdered women, was
detained at his home near Felixstowe.
Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull announced the latest arrest at a
short press conference this morning. He said: "The man has been
arrested on suspicion of murdering all five women. He is currently in
custody at a police station in Suffolk where he will be questioned
about the deaths later today."
Police cordoned off a long stretch of London Road, near Ipswich's
red-light district, where a large white tent had been erected outside
No 79.
As forensic experts and search teams began the search for evidence,
officers loaded a dark blue Ford Mondeo parked outside the bedsit where
the suspect was arrested onto a transporter.
Sky News said the man was known to prostitutes in the area as a client. One described him as an "just an ordinary punter".
Unemployed Alfie Smith, 60, said he saw a man being led out of an address in London Road at around 5am.
"I live opposite where the police went to. I saw lots of policemen. They just took this man out and away he went in a car.
"I didn’t see his face - he sort of had his head turned away. The man
was just in his night clothes. I just saw all the police and didn’t
really know what was going on.
"It was very frightening."
Beni Patel, who owns a B&B opposite the bedsit said she did not know the man who had been arrested.
"They have cordoned the place off and they have been searching it," she said.
"His car has been searched thoroughly and towed. They’ve taken the car, and one lane is closed, cordoned off."
Mr Stephens, a former special constable, remains in custody at a police
station in Suffolk, and earlier today a superintendent gave detectives
a further 12 hours - until 7:20pm - to interview him. If detectives
wish to hold him for longer they will have to...............
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Expat
Village is edited and published by Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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