Tuesday, July 19, 2005

After months of rumor and speculation, the Colombian brewery Grupo Bavaria, which was founded in 1889 and is the second largest in South America, has been acquired by SABMiller in the biggest merger in Colombian history. In a buyout in which the multinational with headquarters in London will obtain 71.8% of Grupo Bavaria’s stock, previously owned by the Santo Domingo family (owner of Caracol Televisión and, until recently, of Avianca). The Santo Domingo family is in turn to receive 225 million shares of SABMiller, which is equivalent to 15.1% of the company. SABMiller is to pay nearly $7.8 billion to complete the transaction.

The news was announced Tuesday at dawn (Colombian local time).

Thus SABMiller, the second largest brewery in the world — surpassed only by Belgian InBev, enters South America through Bavaria’s operations in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Panama, where it controls between 79% and 99% of the beer market.

Of the $7.8 billion paid by SABMiller, $3.5 billion worth is stock for the Santo Domingo family, $1.5 billion is cash to buy out the minority stockholders, and the rest, $1.8 billion, will cover the present debts of the Colombian brewing giant.

During recent months, Ricardo Obregón, president of Grupo Empresarial Bavaria, denied the persistent rumors of a possible sale. In addition to SABMiller, Heineken and InBev had been interested in the Colombian company. Obregón will have to inform the head of the Colombian stock market of the acquisition.

Monday, when the international media reported the transaction, Grupo Bavaria’s stock rose 5.36% in the Colombian stock market and reached a price of 49,100 COP ($21.23). The dollar fell 13 COP and finished the day Monday at 2,315.55 COP. Nevertheless, Tuesday morning, the stock fell 14.26% to 42,100 COP ($18.19), after the price of the stock had been constant for half an hour. In contrast, SABMiller’s stock rose nearly 9 points on the London stock market.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Fire broke out on Friday morning and destroyed the bottom two floors of a six-story hospital in Miryang, South Korea, killing at least 37 people, most of them elderly. More than a hundred injuries were reported, with eighteen people in critical condition. This is the highest death toll from fire in South Korea in almost a decade.

The fire is believed to have started at about 7:30 local time, according to fire chief Choi Man-woo. It originated on the ground floor in the emergency room as per various officials. The hospital has 98 beds and a medical staff of about 35, and specializes in long-term care of elderly patients. It adjoins a nursing home, all of whose 94 residents were evacuated. Staff carried some patients out of the hospital on their backs.

One patient, Jang Yeong-jae, who told his story to JoongAng Ilbo, said he escaped by removing a screen from a window to get to a ladder placed by firefighters. He described people “running around in panic, falling over and screaming as smoke filled the rooms”. The majority of the victims died from smoke inhalation and are believed to be elderly, said the head of the city’s public hospital, Chun Jae-kyung. A doctor, a nurse, and a nursing assistant have died, according to the fire service; it took three hours to put out the fire.

In a press briefing, Seok Gyeong-sik, the director of the hospital, apologized to patients and their families. Son Kyung-chul, its chairman, stated that there were no sprinklers because the facility was small. Sprinklers are being installed in the nursing home, where a new law requires them by June 30.

Last month, 29 people died in a fire in a gym in Jecheon; the owner and the manager were arrested for safety violations. In 2014, a blaze in a nursing home in Jangseong left 21 dead. The President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, responded to the Friday fire by calling an emergency meeting of his staff, and promised that the cause would be found rapidly “to prevent the recurrence of the fire in the future”.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

A bus crash in Victoria, Australia has injured at least 20 people, two of whom are listed as critical. One victim is reported to be still trapped in the wreckage.

The accident occurred between a bus and a semi-trailer on the Princes Highway in the Traralgon area around 10:50am AEST. The La Trobe Valley Busliner bus was traveling east when it collided with the back of a heavy haulage truck.

Those critically injured are being airlifted to a hospital in Melbourne. Others are being transported by Ambulance to La Trobe Valley Hospital in Traralgon.

SES crews are on scene, along with St. John Ambulance and fire crews.

The eastbound lanes of the highway have been blocked by police and traffic is being diverted.

Monday, July 26, 2010

North Korea threatened “powerful nuclear deterrence” on Saturday in response to military drills supported by the U.S. and held by South Korea.

The National Defense Comission of North Korea, headed by their leader Kim Jong-il, declared that they would “counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces” in a “retaliatory sacred war.” Ri Tong-il, an official with North Korea’s delegation to the ASEAN security forum, had said earlier that they would show a “physical response” to the drills. Though Japan sent four military observers in apparent support of the drills, China criticized the plans.

Tensions had recently become especially high in both sides of Korea after the sinking of the warship Cheonan in South Korean waters, killing over 40 people. An international investigation concluded that the warship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo. North Korea still strongly denies any involvement in the incident, calling the results “fabricated” and refusing to apologize. “If anyone should apologize,” said Ri, “it should be South Korea, responsible for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of an explosion.”

Despite this, on 25 July 2010, the US and South Korea began their major military drills together in the Sea of Japan.

Friday, November 25, 2011

U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate Darcy Richardson of Florida took some time to answer a few questions from Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn.

Richardson, 55, is a political activist that helped form the New Democrats in 1989 and founded the progressive Battleground Blog earlier this year. He is also a political historian, and has authored six books covering third parties and presidential elections, including A Nation Divided: The 1968 Presidential Campaign (2002). His current work, The Spirit of ’76: Eugene McCarthy’s Struggle for Open Politics, chronicles the late Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy’s 1976 presidential campaign for which he volunteered. Richardson admires McCarthy, and served as manager for his 1988 presidential run. Recently, Richardson advised Brian Moore’s Socialist Party USA presidential campaign in 2008.

In addition, Richardson himself has sought political office, albeit unsuccessfully. In 1980, he ran for Pennsylvania Auditor General, and in 1988, vied for one of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seats as a member of the Consumer Party. Last year, he ran for Lieutenant Governor of Florida as the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Farid Khavari.

Richardson has criticized President Barack Obama’s policies for being too similar to those of former President George W. Bush. He hoped to convince several prominent progressives to challenge Obama in the Democratic primaries, but none were available to do so. Last month, Richardson decided to begin a campaign himself and announced through his Battleground Blog that he would challenge Obama in the Democratic Party primaries as a progressive candidate. So far, he has qualified for the New Hampshire primary in January and the Missouri primary in February. In an interview with the Independent Political Report, Richardson proclaimed his campaign slogan as “no fourth term for George W. Bush.”

Friday, September 19, 2008

Stock markets around the world, particularly those in the United Kingdom, have increased dramatically today. This is due to the ongoing events in the financial world, including the United States government’s announcement that it would buy billions of dollars of bad loans from US banks.

The primary UK index, the FTSE 100, rose in value by 8.04%, which is 392.50 points, to above the 5000 mark at 5272.50. The Dow Jones, was up 3.10% at 14:58 UTC, an increase of 330.89. The Dow Jones currently has a value of 11350.58 points. The NASDAQ index has risen by 2.53% to 2248.63, while the Dax was 5.06% higher than the start of the day as of 14:58 UTC.

The US Treasury described the government’s bail-out plan in a press release released earlier today. It said that “The U.S. Treasury Department today announced the establishment of a temporary guaranty program for the U.S. money market mutual fund industry. For the next year, the U.S. Treasury will insure the holdings of any publicly offered eligible money market mutual fund – both retail and institutional – that pays a fee to participate in the program.”

Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, explained the government’s reasoning behind its plan. He said that the government was buying bad loans “to restore confidence in our markets and our financial institutions, so they can fuel continued growth and prosperity, we must address the underlying problem.”

President George W. Bush, speaking at a press conference alongside Paulson, said “this is a pivotal moment for America’s economy.”

The government plan is permitted under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which gives the Treasury the permission “to deal in gold, foreign exchange, and other instruments of credit and securities.”

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