1 Lloyds sell off in offing (Jill Treanor and Nicholas Watt in The Guardian) George Osborne has signalled he is ready to start the sell-off of the taxpayer's stake in Lloyds Banking Group, but said he is to consider whether to break up the Royal Bank of Scotland, in a move that could delay the bailed-out bank's return to the private sector.
The chancellor said he was "actively considering options for share sales in Lloyds", in which the government has a 39% stake. Speculation is mounting that a partial sell-off of the state's Lloyds stake could take place within months. But he played down expectations of an immediate "Tell Sid"-style privatisation, as implemented by the Conservatives for British Gas during the 1980s.
The chancellor also used his strongest language yet to signal his confidence that the economy is recovering nearly five years after the banking crisis forced taxpayers to pump £65bn into the two banks. He said: "We are moving from rescue to recovery. But while Britain has left intensive care, we still need to secure the recovery – and make sure we continue to treat the ailments that brought us low in the first place."
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said Osborne had been forced to "back down from the foolhardy idea of a pre-election firesale of RBS". "This would have meant a loss of billions of pounds to the taxpayer at the current share price," he said, urging the government to look at other options for RBS, including splitting its retail and investment banking arms.
2 US Fed may scale back bond buy in 2014 (BBC) The US
Federal Reserve has maintained the rate of its asset purchase programme at
$85bn a month, but could start scaling it back soon. It also kept interest
rates at a record low range of between zero and 0.25%.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said if the central bank's
forecasts were correct, it could begin slowing asset purchases by the end of
2013 and wind them down completely by the middle of 2014. But he emphasised
that the programme was tied to economic conditions. The Fed's asset purchase
programme, in which it has been buying $85bn of government bonds a month, aims
to lower long-term interest rates to encourage borrowing, spending and
investing.
3 Obesity recognized as disease (Andrew Pollack in The
New York Times) The American Medical Association has officially recognized
obesity as a disease, a move that could induce physicians to pay more attention
to the condition and spur more insurers to pay for treatments. In making the
decision, delegates at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago overrode a
recommendation against doing so by a committee that had studied the matter.
“Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the
way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately
one in three Americans,” Dr. Patrice Harris, a member of the association’s
board, said in a statement. She suggested the new definition would help in the
fight against Type2 diabetes and heart disease, which are linked to obesity.
To some extent, the question of whether obesity is a
disease or not is a semantic one, since there is not even a universally agreed
upon definition of what constitutes a disease. And the AMA’s decision has no
legal authority. Still, some doctors and obesity advocates said that having the
nation’s largest physician group make the declaration would focus more
attention on obesity. And it could help improve reimbursement for obesity
drugs, surgery and counseling.
4 Jail for Dolce and Gabbana (BBC) Italian
fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been sentenced to
jail in Italy for one year and eight months for tax evasion. They were accused
of hiding millions of euros from Italian tax authorities. The pair were not at
the trial, deny the charges and have appealed. Dolce and Gabbana have not
commented on their sentences, which have been suspended pending their appeal.
5 Islam at war with itself (Murtaza Hiader in Dawn) From Aleppo in Syria to Quetta in Balochistan, Muslims are engaged in the slaughter of other Muslims. The numbers are enormous: over 93,000 killed in the Syrian civil war and over 48,000 dead in Pakistan. Millions have perished in similar intra-Muslim conflicts in the past four decades. Many wonder if the belief in Islam was sufficient to bind Muslims in peace with each other.
Since the end of the Second World War, the world has moved in two distinct directions. The West, mostly Christian, has tried to minimise the intra-European conflict and has largely been successful with some exceptions. The Muslim world, on the other hand, has fallen into one violent conflict after another, involving mostly Muslims.
The overwhelming evidence suggests that the sectarian and tribal divisions amongst Muslims and justifying violence in the name of religion are the primary causes of why Islam is at war with itself. The hate-fuelled gulfs that divide Muslims are so wide that not only unarmed civilians, but doctors and others who try to save victims of violence, are also targeted by the extremists. Does it really matter what real Islam is when its true followers cannot stand against those who use religion to commit genocide?
6 Singapore millionaire count in 2012: 101,000 (Rachael Boon in Straits Times) The share market rally sharply increased the ranks of Singapore's wealthy last year. New figures show that there were 101,000 millionaires by the end of 2012, a jump of 10.3% over 2011.
Their total wealth went through the roof as well and was estimated to have hit $489 billion, up 11.5% on the 2011 level. The report by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management defines a millionaire as someone with US$1 million or more in investable assets.
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